zsh info files not linked to info directory

[mz-pdm]

Basic info

To make sure that we are on the same page:

• System: 15.09.1113.23395c4 (Dingo) (applies to nixos-unstable as well)
• Nixpkgs version: "15.09.1113.23395c4" (applies to nixos-unstable as well)

Describe your issue here

Zsh Info documentation is built and present in
/nix/store/zsh/share/zsh-5.0.8/Doc/zsh.info*. However they are not linked
to /run/current-system/sw/share/info/, so Emacs can't see them.

Expected result

Zsh Info files are available in /run/current-system/sw/share/info/.

Actual result

Zsh Info files are not present in /run/current-system/sw/share/info/.

Steps to reproduce

• Run `emacs'.
• Type `C-h i' (control-h + i).
• Look for "zsh" (it's not present).

[hrdinka]

Please check if #13791 fixes this.

[mz-pdm]

It's better now, the files are installed. But entry in .../share/info/dir file is still missing, so the "zsh" is still not visible in Emacs (see Steps to reproduce above).

[hrdinka]

As of #9326 the dir file will be auto generated for system profiles. It however won't be generated for user profiles. If you're on NixOS adding zsh to your system packages should do the job. If you're not here is a workaround #3030.

[mz-pdm]

OK, hopefully it will work. (I can't test it as I'm a NixOS beginner and I couldn't find out how to install a package from unstable to the system profile of a stable system.)

[hrdinka]

There are many ways to do this. If you just want to add it to your systemPackages you can import the unstable nixpkgs and install it from there. First clone nixpkgs repo then add the following to your config:

{ ... }:
let myPkgs = import $pathToNixpkgs { };
in {
  environment.systemPackages = [
    myPkgs.zsh
  ];
}

$pathToNixpkgs can either be a relative path to your nixpkgs clone or an absolute path utilizing your NIX_PATH environment variable. Checkout your NIX_PATH it should contain something like nixpkgs=... and nixos-config=.... Just add another path to it like:

export NIX_PATH=$NIX_PATH:mypkgs=/path/to/nixpkgs/clone

Now you can use <mypkgs> to refer to this path. For example import <mypkgs> {}; will import the whole package tree while import <mypkgs/lib>; only imports the lib subdirectory. This kinda works like C includes.

Another way of doing this is via package overrides: https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/manual/#sec-modify-via-packageOverrides

If you are planning to get a bit more involved you can also let nixpkgs point to your fresh clone. It will then use your local nixpkg copy instead of the channel. If you still want to use stable you can simply check out the stable branch of your choice and cherry pick the changes you like.

[Profpatsch]

info files should now be linked and accessible by default on NixOS systems.