ZSH config sometimes needs to be added to user instead of global on MacOS

[BagMan9]

Error

Error: 
   0: Install failure
   1: Self test
   2: Shell `zsh` failed self-test with command `"zsh" "-ic" "nix build --no-link --expr \'derivation { name = \"self-test-zsh-1688696922719\"; system = \"aarch64-darwin\"; builder = \"/bin/sh\"; args = [\"-c\" \"echo hello > \\$out\"]; }\'"`, stderr:
   2: zsh:1: command not found: nix

Metadata

key	value
version	0.10.0
os	macos
arch	aarch64

Initially, I thought the issue was not adding nix to my .zshrc, but even after adding nix, sourcing it, and a reboot, it doesn't seem to be working.

This is what I added for reference:

# Nix
if [ -e '/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/profile.d/nix-daemon.sh' ]; then
    . '/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/profile.d/nix-daemon.sh'
fi
# End Nix

I am running macOS Sonoma, which is beta software. If this is expected, or you guys don't want to deal with issues on beta hardware, I totally understand.

[Hoverbear]

After chatting with @cole-h I think we should only be warning for these errors.

Could you help me fully understand the situation?

• Can you run nix from your normal shell?
• Can you run sh then run nix in it?
• Can you verify your $PATH contains a nix related path? /nix/...

[BagMan9]

Sorry, meant to put that in after the zshrc code block:

• Nix cannot be run from my normal shell (zsh)
• Nix is not in my path and does not get placed there automatically. I manually added it to my path (seperate from that code block) it still does not work
• I did not check to see if sh worked, I will check that now

I went ahead and nuked my install completely and am starting from scratch. I'll see if maybe there was something small I missed.

[BagMan9]

Re ran it again and manually added nix to the path worked this time:

# Nix
if [ -e '/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/profile.d/nix-daemon.sh' ]; then
    . '/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/profile.d/nix-daemon.sh'
fi
# End Nix
path+=("/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin/")

However, this did not get added by the install script, and I don't have a particularly weird dotfile setup, so it seems odd that it didn't get added (or perhaps this is expected behavior?)

[Hoverbear]

Which file did you add this code to?

[BagMan9]

~/.zshrc

[Hoverbear]

The self-test uses root's zsh, I wonder if your root's zsh somehow isn't importing the system zsh profiles...

[BagMan9]

I sudo su'd into my root profile, there is no .zshrc present in root's home dir. /etc/zshrc does contain the Nix if statement (#Nix-#End Nix), but no path appends or prepends.

[Hoverbear]

Does Nix work from your root zsh shell? The . /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/profile.d/nix-daemon.sh line should be the one that does most of the work.

[BagMan9]

Yes, it does work from my root zsh shell.

[CalebBurton]

I ran into this same issue this week on both a 2022 M1 macbook running macOS 13.5 and a 2015 Intel macbook running macOS 12.6.8. In both cases the installer gives the same warning that BagMan9 posted in the issue description. From the comments, I tried switching around to different shells with the following results:

My normal shell (zsh):

> which nix
nix not found

Switching into sh:

> sh
> which nix
(blank)

Switching into root (zsh):

> sudo su -
> which nix
/var/root/.nix-profile/bin/nix

EDIT: I ran into similar problems with the official installer. This comment helped me get things working: not only do you have to add the daemon script to your local zshrc, you also have to remove it from the global zshrc.

[Hoverbear]

Self testing is no longer a failure, but a warning.

However this issue is still open since it's also describing a Mac issue with zsh.