Nix-build is broken, nix build works

[tomsmalley]

Just checking...

• This is a cardano-wallet bug.
• I am using the latest cardano-wallet release.
• I am using the correct cardano-node version for that release of cardano-wallet.

Version

dde6270

Platform

Linux nixos 5.10.88 #1-NixOS SMP Wed Dec 22 08:31:00 UTC 2021 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Installation method

Nix

Network configuration

No response

Context

When running nix-build in the project root directory, I get:

building '/nix/store/4ig2z0ly7yjnzxcfhkl3rwqy739gkm94-source.drv'...

trying https://api.github.com/repos/numtide/flake-utils/tarball/74f7e4319258e287b0f9cb95426c9853b282730b
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0
100  7256  100  7256    0     0  28793      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 28793
unpacking source archive /build/74f7e4319258e287b0f9cb95426c9853b282730b
do not know how to unpack source archive /build/74f7e4319258e287b0f9cb95426c9853b282730b
error: builder for '/nix/store/4ig2z0ly7yjnzxcfhkl3rwqy739gkm94-source.drv' failed with exit code 1

But if I use Nix with flakes and nix-command, I can run nix flake archive, and subsequent nix-builds will work fine because flake-utils is in the store.

Description

Steps to Reproduce

1. Clone the repo
2. nix-collect-garbage to ensure you don't have flake-utils in the store
3. nix-build

Expected behavior

Successful build

Actual behavior

This error:

building '/nix/store/4ig2z0ly7yjnzxcfhkl3rwqy739gkm94-source.drv'...

trying https://api.github.com/repos/numtide/flake-utils/tarball/74f7e4319258e287b0f9cb95426c9853b282730b
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0
100  7256  100  7256    0     0  28793      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 28793
unpacking source archive /build/74f7e4319258e287b0f9cb95426c9853b282730b
do not know how to unpack source archive /build/74f7e4319258e287b0f9cb95426c9853b282730b
error: builder for '/nix/store/4ig2z0ly7yjnzxcfhkl3rwqy739gkm94-source.drv' failed with exit code 1

[rvl]

Hi @tomsmalley, The next release of cardano-wallet will be using nix flakes for its build.
Could I ask you to please install nix version 2.6.0 (or greater) and enable this configuration:

# nix.conf
experimental-features = nix-command flakes

Then build with the command:

nix build

More information:

• https://input-output-hk.github.io/cardano-wallet/developers/Building#nix
• https://input-output-hk.github.io/cardano-wallet/user-guide/installation/NixOS

Thanks

[HeinrichApfelmus]

Closing — as @rvl said, we no longer support building with plain nix-build, but we do support flakes with nix build.