Allow enforcing linking etc when file exists #149

domenkozar · 2019-06-26T11:54:16Z

warning: not linking environment.etc."nix/nix.conf" because /etc/nix/nix.conf exists, skipping...

In some situations it's desireable to override etc files if they exist. For example when you install Nix and then nix-darwin, it won't take over nix.conf.

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

domenkozar · 2019-06-27T11:51:14Z

Talking to @LnL7 on #nix-darwin we identified the following requirements:

prevent loss of data
nix-darwin should be able to manage etc files
rewriting some system files can have drastic effect

so the proposal is for nix-darwin to emit the following line when replacing an existing file in etc:

warning: Backing up /etc/nix/nix.conf to /etc/nix/.nix-darwin.bkp.nix.conf and replacing the original file

and subsequent runs:

warning: Backup of /etc/nix/.nix-darwin.bkp.nix.conf still exists. Review if it's still needed, back it up and remove it.

spease · 2020-12-09T06:35:03Z

I also ran into this when doing a clean install of nix and nix-darwin onto a clean computer.

error: not linking environment.etc."nix/nix.conf" because /etc/nix/nix.conf already exists, skipping...
existing file has unknown content ff08c12813680da98c4240328f828647b67a65ba7aa89c022bd8072cba862cf1, move and activate again to apply

I moved to a backup file and it no longer appears, but this is definitely a usability annoyance that can make someone think something is broken (I'm not sure if it is or not).

andreykaipov · 2020-12-18T23:06:43Z

Same issue after a first install. Manually moved /etc/nix/nix.conf to a backup file. Afterwards no spurious errors. Here's my nix-info if necessary:

$ nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m"
 - system: `"x86_64-darwin"`
 - host os: `Darwin 19.6.0, macOS 10.15.6`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `no`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.3.10`
 - channels(root): `"nixpkgs-21.03pre258655.00941cd747e"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixpkgs`

fxcl · 2021-10-06T04:37:32Z

error: not linking environment.etc."ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt" because /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt already exists, skipping...
existing file has unknown content 38b6230aa4bee062cd34ee0ff6da173250899642b1937fc130896290b6bd91e3, move and activate again to apply

fxcl · 2021-11-09T14:47:33Z

error: not linking environment.etc."shells" because /etc/shells already exists, skipping...
existing file has unknown content 9d5aa72f807091b481820d12e693093293ba33c73854909ad7b0fb192c2db193, move and activate again to apply

ahmedelgabri · 2023-02-25T00:40:48Z

I had the same error when setting up a new machine M2, I moved the file but now my nix setup is totally broken. with this error

error: cannot connect to socket at '/nix/var/nix/daemon-socket/socket': Connection refused

even running nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m" fails with the same error.

I tried restoring the file, but I'm still getting the same errors

If I do --show-trace I get the following

error:
       … while evaluating call site

       at «none»:0: (source not available)

       … while calling anonymous lambda

       at «string»:1:1:

            1| {...}@args: with import <nixpkgs> args; (pkgs.runCommandCC or pkgs.runCommand) "shell" { buildInputs = [ (nix-info) ]; } ""
             | ^

       error: cannot connect to socket at '/nix/var/nix/daemon-socket/socket': Connection refused

Update: A restart fixed this.

ghost · 2023-04-10T04:23:38Z

Seems like this is still not resolved. I ran into the same problem with /etc/nix/nix.conf and /etc/shells.

chandy · 2023-04-16T01:45:36Z

Still seeing this issue as well with /etc/shells

woylie · 2023-09-30T02:58:01Z

I'm seeing this with /etc/shells every single time I run darwin-rebuild switch.

error: Unexpected files in /etc, aborting activation
The following files have unrecognized content and would be overwritten:

  /etc/shells

Please check there is nothing critical in these files, rename them by adding .before-nix-darwin to the end, and then try again.

Enzime · 2023-09-30T03:08:31Z

Can you post the contents of /etc/shells?

woylie · 2023-09-30T03:14:25Z

Can you post the contents of /etc/shells?

# List of acceptable shells for chpass(1).
# Ftpd will not allow users to connect who are not using
# one of these shells.

/bin/bash
/bin/csh
/bin/dash
/bin/ksh
/bin/sh
/bin/tcsh
/bin/zsh

# List of shells managed by nix.
/run/current-system/sw/bin/fish

bestlem · 2023-09-30T09:05:09Z

I get this every time I install nix (in the same error message as /etc/nix/nix.conf) - On a new VM I use Deterministic systems nix installer then my flake.
The original /etc/shells backed up as requested to shells.before-nix-darwin looks OK

# List of acceptable shells for chpass(1).
# Ftpd will not allow users to connect who are not using
# one of these shells.

/bin/bash
/bin/csh
/bin/dash
/bin/ksh
/bin/sh
/bin/tcsh
/bin/zsh

How is the check done?
I am not a good shell programmer (if it has more than one test or a page of code - I will use a proper language)
but I can't see a knownSha256Hashes for /etc/shells

Enzime · 2023-09-30T22:10:15Z

It runs shasum -a 256 /etc/shells before changing it, if you could make a PR where you include the file in docs/known-files and set environment.etc."shells".knownSha256Hashes that would be great 👍

bestlem · 2023-10-02T16:58:40Z

As I said I can't follow the bash scripts.
I could not find (using ripgrep) in the code where knownSha256Hashes for /etc/shells is set.
I could find knownSha256Hashes for several files including nix.conf /etc/bashrc /etc/zshrc /etc/zprofile and /etc/resolver/ts.net but not /etc/shells

I looked at all the hashes in doc/known-files - note that is what I see not the path docs/known-files that you quote.
and none of these hashes are for /etc/shells

From my ventura machine
shasum -a 256 shells.before-nix-darwin 9d5aa72f807091b481820d12e693093293ba33c73854909ad7b0fb192c2db193 shells.before-nix-darwin

plsnotracking · 2023-11-16T17:54:15Z

I'm also experiencing the same problem.
Error Trace

building the system configuration...
trace: warning: optionsDocBook is deprecated since 23.11 and will be removed in 24.05
trace: warning: optionsDocBook is deprecated since 23.11 and will be removed in 24.05
trace: warning: optionsDocBook is deprecated since 23.11 and will be removed in 24.05
error: Unexpected files in /etc, aborting activation
The following files have unrecognized content and would be overwritten:

  /etc/shells

Please check there is nothing critical in these files, rename them by adding .before-nix-darwin to the end, and then try again.

Renaming it works, but just wanted to report. Thanks.

Enzime · 2023-11-16T21:25:43Z

Can you upload your copy of /etc/shells and the SHA256 hash?

onsails · 2023-11-18T17:12:50Z

Having the same problem with /etc/nix/nix.conf (manually modified, so it's expectable), /etc/bashrc and /etc/zshrc after installing nix on aarch64-darwin host with official installer and then applying flake:

error: Unexpected files in /etc, aborting activation
The following files have unrecognized content and would be overwritten:

  /etc/nix/nix.conf
  /etc/bashrc
  /etc/zshrc

93d040a3-edfd-4409-9065-28f5b0d035d1% sudo cat /etc/bashrc

# 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

93d040a3-edfd-4409-9065-28f5b0d035d1% sudo cat /etc/zshrc

# 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

93d040a3-edfd-4409-9065-28f5b0d035d1%

n8henrie · 2023-12-21T20:51:49Z

I get this error after every recent MacOS upgrade (currently Sonoma 14.2.1, M1 MBP). To fix, I run:

$ sudo mv /etc/shells{,.bak}
$ /run/current-system/sw/bin/darwin-rebuild switch --flake ~/git/nixos

n8henrie · 2023-12-21T22:56:25Z

Also a problem in CI (for agenix in this case) where one uses e.g. cachix/install-nix-action with some default nix.conf settings but later activate a nix-darwin configuration.

nix-darwin is detecting `/etc/nix/nix.conf` from the cachix/install-nix-action and refusing to overwrite it, failing the nix-darwin activation and therefore the rest of CI. This commit `mv`s the existing `nix.conf` to avoid the above, and then adds support for new-style nix commands and flakes to the nix-darwin configuration to allow their subsequent use in CI. It also removes the nix config from the `cachix/install-nix-action` step, which was duplicated effort since we are blowing it away with nix-darwin anyway. Relevant: - LnL7/nix-darwin#149

Enzime · 2023-12-22T01:03:21Z

@n8henrie could you post your /etc/shells and the SHA256 hash of it?

n8henrie · 2023-12-22T01:14:24Z

@Enzime unfortunately over the last 5 or so point releases I've gotten into the habit of just rming it (in contrast to the mv in my post above), so I'm not sure.

I presume it's the same as my wife's MBA which is on 14.1.1, though not sure. I'll probably update her to 14.2.1 tonight and if so will post that one as well (or confirm that it's the same).

$ cat /etc/shells
# List of acceptable shells for chpass(1).
# Ftpd will not allow users to connect who are not using
# one of these shells.

/bin/bash
/bin/csh
/bin/ksh
/bin/sh
/bin/tcsh
/bin/zsh
/opt/homebrew/bin/bash
$ sha256sum /etc/shells
ecafa9a53b266e51cf985f4c69834449a207a19cee5bcb351e4115214ace1dd5  /etc/shells

sheeley · 2023-12-22T01:26:27Z

Is there a way to resolve this without having an exhaustive list of SHAs that can be replaced? I don't particularly care what the previous content was, I would just like it to be overwritten (given the number of folks who rm /etc/shells, I suspect that may be a common case).

n8henrie · 2023-12-22T02:13:13Z

Depending on the file, even just a flag to enable moving it to a timestamped backup would be nice.

n8henrie · 2023-12-22T23:50:09Z

@Enzime unfortunately over the last 5 or so point releases I've gotten into the habit of just rming it (in contrast to the mv in my post above), so I'm not sure.

I presume it's the same as my wife's MBA which is on 14.1.1, though not sure. I'll probably update her to 14.2.1 tonight and if so will post that one as well (or confirm that it's the same).

$ cat /etc/shells
# List of acceptable shells for chpass(1).
# Ftpd will not allow users to connect who are not using
# one of these shells.

/bin/bash
/bin/csh
/bin/ksh
/bin/sh
/bin/tcsh
/bin/zsh
/opt/homebrew/bin/bash
$ sha256sum /etc/shells
ecafa9a53b266e51cf985f4c69834449a207a19cee5bcb351e4115214ace1dd5  /etc/shells

...

Apparently I never clicked submit, glad Firefox kept this comment cached.

After updating her computer it is indeed the same for her:

$ sw_vers
ProductName:		macOS
ProductVersion:		14.2.1
BuildVersion:		23C71
$ sha256sum /etc/shells
ecafa9a53b266e51cf985f4c69834449a207a19cee5bcb351e4115214ace1dd5  /etc/shells

Next time I run across this I will post my hash.

nix-darwin is detecting `/etc/nix/nix.conf` from the cachix/install-nix-action and refusing to overwrite it, failing the nix-darwin activation and therefore the rest of CI. This commit `mv`s the existing `nix.conf` to avoid the above, and then adds support for new-style nix commands and flakes to the nix-darwin configuration to allow their subsequent use in CI. It also removes the nix config from the `cachix/install-nix-action` step, which was duplicated effort since we are blowing it away with nix-darwin anyway. Relevant: - LnL7/nix-darwin#149

hraban · 2024-02-23T18:32:14Z

Is there a temporary flag / envvar of sorts to override this behavior entirely and just force override any existing file? It's particularly painful for /etc/nix/nix.conf when I have a stale github token in it, for which I need nix to overwrite it but I can't use nix obviously (because of the stale token in nix.conf), so I edit it manually but now nix-darwin refuses to run (because it's an unknown file), but if I remove that file then Nix will act weird again, and, well, you get it. It's a catch 22.

hraban · 2024-02-23T18:50:09Z

What about checking for the existence of a file $file.before-nix-darwin, and if that exists, don't halt?

domenkozar mentioned this issue Jun 26, 2019

hercules-ci-agent: binary caches support hercules-ci/nix-darwin#1

Merged

4 tasks

domenkozar mentioned this issue Jun 27, 2019

Replace etc files with links if they exist but backup first #150

Closed

kclejeune mentioned this issue Nov 29, 2020

add backupFileExtension option to environment.nix #257

Closed

spease mentioned this issue Dec 9, 2020

Support for Apple Silicon (aarch64-darwin) NixOS/nixpkgs#95903

Closed

spease mentioned this issue Feb 4, 2021

Issues getting nix to work in general and specifically on an M1 NixOS/nix#4519

Open

lockejan mentioned this issue Aug 28, 2022

Installation gotcha... /etc/nix/nix.conf #458

Open

ryan4yin mentioned this issue Dec 18, 2023

etc: add more known hashes for DeterminateSystems nix-installer #834

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n8henrie mentioned this issue Dec 21, 2023

feat: switch from rage to age ryantm/agenix#230

Merged

Enzime mentioned this issue Dec 22, 2023

etc: allow overwriting files with unknown hashes #836

Open

Enzime mentioned this issue Dec 23, 2023

etc: add known hash for /etc/shells #837

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Allow enforcing linking etc when file exists #149

Allow enforcing linking etc when file exists #149

domenkozar commented Jun 26, 2019

domenkozar commented Jun 27, 2019 •

edited

spease commented Dec 9, 2020

andreykaipov commented Dec 18, 2020

fxcl commented Oct 6, 2021

fxcl commented Nov 9, 2021

ahmedelgabri commented Feb 25, 2023 •

edited

ghost commented Apr 10, 2023 •

edited by ghost

chandy commented Apr 16, 2023

woylie commented Sep 30, 2023

Enzime commented Sep 30, 2023

woylie commented Sep 30, 2023

bestlem commented Sep 30, 2023 •

edited

Enzime commented Sep 30, 2023

bestlem commented Oct 2, 2023 •

edited

plsnotracking commented Nov 16, 2023

Enzime commented Nov 16, 2023

onsails commented Nov 18, 2023 •

edited

n8henrie commented Dec 21, 2023

n8henrie commented Dec 21, 2023

Enzime commented Dec 22, 2023

n8henrie commented Dec 22, 2023

sheeley commented Dec 22, 2023

n8henrie commented Dec 22, 2023

n8henrie commented Dec 22, 2023 •

edited

hraban commented Feb 23, 2024

hraban commented Feb 23, 2024

Allow enforcing linking etc when file exists #149

Allow enforcing linking etc when file exists #149

Comments

domenkozar commented Jun 26, 2019

domenkozar commented Jun 27, 2019 • edited

spease commented Dec 9, 2020

andreykaipov commented Dec 18, 2020

fxcl commented Oct 6, 2021

fxcl commented Nov 9, 2021

ahmedelgabri commented Feb 25, 2023 • edited

ghost commented Apr 10, 2023 • edited by ghost

chandy commented Apr 16, 2023

woylie commented Sep 30, 2023

Enzime commented Sep 30, 2023

woylie commented Sep 30, 2023

bestlem commented Sep 30, 2023 • edited

Enzime commented Sep 30, 2023

bestlem commented Oct 2, 2023 • edited

plsnotracking commented Nov 16, 2023

Enzime commented Nov 16, 2023

onsails commented Nov 18, 2023 • edited

n8henrie commented Dec 21, 2023

n8henrie commented Dec 21, 2023

Enzime commented Dec 22, 2023

n8henrie commented Dec 22, 2023

sheeley commented Dec 22, 2023

n8henrie commented Dec 22, 2023

n8henrie commented Dec 22, 2023 • edited

hraban commented Feb 23, 2024

hraban commented Feb 23, 2024

domenkozar commented Jun 27, 2019 •

edited

ahmedelgabri commented Feb 25, 2023 •

edited

ghost commented Apr 10, 2023 •

edited by ghost

bestlem commented Sep 30, 2023 •

edited

bestlem commented Oct 2, 2023 •

edited

onsails commented Nov 18, 2023 •

edited

n8henrie commented Dec 22, 2023 •

edited