glib: follow profile updates when searching apps

[max-privatevoid]

Motivation for this change

GNOME Shell monitors XDG_DATA_DIRS for changes using inotify for the
purpose of updating the list of applications displayed in the overview
as they are installed or removed. Because the relevant directories are
symlinks under NixOS and are swapped on change, Shell never notices it.
To remedy this, also monitor various profile directories to signal an
update whenever profiles are changed.

This uses a patch from Guix, slightly modified to also encompass user
environment profiles (/etc/profiles/per-user/$USER) in addition to the
system profile (/nix/var/nix/profiles/system) as well as regular user
profiles (/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/$USER/profile).

Fixes #12757

Known limitation: On installations to /etc/profiles/per-user, the list of applications gets updated, but Shell fails to find the icons for new applications. This is the case when installing them declaratively through home-manager's NixOS module. Other methods, such as ad-hoc via nix-env/nix profile install work fine.

Things done

• Tested using sandboxing (nix.useSandbox on NixOS, or option sandbox in nix.conf on non-NixOS linux)
• Built on platform(s)
  • NixOS
  • macOS
  • other Linux distributions
• Tested via one or more NixOS test(s) if existing and applicable for the change (look inside nixos/tests)
• Tested compilation of all pkgs that depend on this change using nix-shell -p nixpkgs-review --run "nixpkgs-review wip"
• Tested execution of all binary files (usually in ./result/bin/)
• Determined the impact on package closure size (by running nix path-info -S before and after)
• Ensured that relevant documentation is up to date
• Fits CONTRIBUTING.md.

[r-rmcgibbo]

Result of nixpkgs-review pr 118100 at 5fa00518 run on aarch64-linux 1

830 packages marked as broken and skipped:

• OVMF-CSM
• adoptopenjdk-hotspot-bin-13
• adoptopenjdk-hotspot-bin-14
• adoptopenjdk-jre-hotspot-bin-13
• adoptopenjdk-jre-hotspot-bin-14
• agdaPackages.iowa-stdlib
• aldor
• alliance
• ams-lv2
• amule
• ...

16218 packages skipped due to time constraints:

• AusweisApp2
• DisnixWebService
• EBTKS
• EmptyEpsilon
• Fabric (python38Packages.Fabric)
• MIDIVisualizer
• MMA
• OVMF
• OVMF-secureBoot
• R
• ...

31 packages built successfully:

• asciidoctor
• atk (gnome2.atk ,gnome3.atk)
• cairo (gnome2.cairo)
• dejavu_fonts
• desktop-file-utils
• epoxy
• fontconfig
• fontforge (fontforge-fonttools ,python38Packages.fontforge)
• gd
• gdk-pixbuf
• glib (gnome2.glib ,gnome3.glib)
• libsoup (gnome2.libsoup)
• pango (gnome2.pango)
• gobject-introspection (gnome3.gobject-introspection)
• vala (gnome3.vala ,vala_0_48)
• gts
• harfbuzz
• json-glib
• libnotify
• libqrtr-glib
• libva
• libva-minimal
• mesa
• python38Packages.pycairo
• python38Packages.pygobject3
• shared-mime-info
• spideroak
• wayland
• wayland-protocols
• xlibsWrapper (xorg.xlibsWrapper)
• xorg.libXft

---

Result of nixpkgs-review pr 118100 at 5fa00518 run on x86_64-linux 1

735 packages marked as broken and skipped:

• adobe-reader
• adoptopenjdk-hotspot-bin-13
• adoptopenjdk-hotspot-bin-14
• adoptopenjdk-jre-hotspot-bin-13
• adoptopenjdk-jre-hotspot-bin-14
• adoptopenjdk-jre-openj9-bin-13
• adoptopenjdk-jre-openj9-bin-14
• adoptopenjdk-openj9-bin-13
• adoptopenjdk-openj9-bin-14
• agdaPackages.iowa-stdlib
• ...

18126 packages skipped due to time constraints:

• AusweisApp2
• DisnixWebService
• EBTKS
• EmptyEpsilon
• Fabric (python38Packages.Fabric)
• MIDIVisualizer
• MMA
• OSCAR
• OVMF
• OVMF-CSM
• ...

34 packages built successfully:

• asciidoctor
• atk (gnome2.atk ,gnome3.atk)
• cairo (gnome2.cairo)
• dejavu_fonts
• desktop-file-utils
• epoxy
• fontconfig
• fontforge (fontforge-fonttools ,python38Packages.fontforge)
• gd
• gdk-pixbuf
• glib (gnome2.glib ,gnome3.glib)
• gnome2.libIDL
• libsoup (gnome2.libsoup)
• pango (gnome2.pango)
• gobject-introspection (gnome3.gobject-introspection)
• gsettings-desktop-schemas (gnome3.gsettings-desktop-schemas)
• vala (gnome3.vala ,vala_0_48)
• gnomeExtensions.dynamic-panel-transparency
• gts
• harfbuzz
• json-glib
• libGL
• libqrtr-glib
• libva
• libva-minimal
• mesa
• perl532Packages.X11Protocol
• python38Packages.pycairo
• python38Packages.pygobject3
• shared-mime-info
• wayland
• wayland-protocols
• xlibsWrapper (xorg.xlibsWrapper)
• xorg.libXft

8 suggestions:

• warning: missing-patch-comment

  Please add a comment on the line above, explaining the purpose of this patch.
  Near pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix:56:5:

     |
  56 |     ./darwin-compilation.patch
     |     ^
  

• warning: build-tools-in-build-inputs

  gnum4 is a build tool so it likely goes to nativeBuildInputs, not buildInputs.

  Near pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix:93:3:

     |
  93 |   buildInputs = [
     |   ^
  

• warning: build-tools-in-build-inputs

  gtk-doc is a build tool so it likely goes to nativeBuildInputs, not buildInputs.

  Near pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix:93:3:

     |
  93 |   buildInputs = [
     |   ^
  

• warning: missing-patch-comment

  Please add a comment on the line above, explaining the purpose of this patch.
  Near pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix:59:5:

     |
  59 |     ./gobject_init_on_demand.patch
     |     ^
  

• warning: missing-patch-comment

  Please add a comment on the line above, explaining the purpose of this patch.
  Near pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix:58:5:

     |
  58 |     ./quark_init_on_demand.patch
     |     ^
  

• warning: unused-argument

  Unused argument: fetchpatch.
  Near pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix:11:11:

     |
  11 | , darwin, fetchpatch
     |           ^
  

• warning: missing-patch-comment

  Please add a comment on the line above, explaining the purpose of this patch.
  Near pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix:62:5:

     |
  62 |     ./schema-override-variable.patch
     |     ^
  

• warning: missing-patch-comment

  Please add a comment on the line above, explaining the purpose of this patch.
  Near pkgs/development/libraries/glib/default.nix:61:5:

     |
  61 |     ./glib-appinfo-watch.patch
     |     ^
  

[SuperSandro2000]

/rebase staging

[github-actions]

Rebased, please reopen the pull request to restart CI

[stale]

I marked this as stale due to inactivity. → More info

[iam-cult]

Any updates on this? This is the only reason I do not use GNOME on NixOS, and would really like to see some action on this issue.

[wmertens]

Seems to me that the patch is a little limited? It doesn't work with home-manager, would it not be better to special-case all links to /nix instead of special-casing system and user profiles?

[wmertens]

maybe the solution is to check here if the directory it wants to watch is a symlink to /nix, and if so, pass FALSE instead of TRUE?

https://github.com/frida/glib/blob/ceb3ada29104dc85dbb116e7dca32ba565aad368/gio/gdesktopappinfo.c#L1433

[nixos-discourse]

This pull request has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/required-nix-gnome-tweaks-hacks/20711/3