MacOS - Migration from direnv

[rdelgatte]

Hello,

I've been using direnv for some times now and I wanted to use nix-direnv to benefit from the caching mechanism but I can't figure out why it does not work on my side.
It looks like it keeps using direnv whereas I tried to install and configure nix-direnv following the documentation.

• I updated my project .envrc file as below:

use nix

• I installed nix-direnv using nix-env and tried but I still get the following output:
• I ran direnv allow in my project directory
• Result = It keeps using direnv as before:

➜  projects cd my-project
direnv: loading ~/projects/my-project/.envrc
direnv: using nix
direnv: ([/Users/Remi/.nix-profile/bin/direnv export zsh]) is taking a while to execute. Use CTRL-C to give up.
direnv: export +API_MGT_HOST +AR +AR_FOR_TARGET +AS +AS_FOR_TARGET +CC +CC_FOR_TARGET +CLIENT_ID +CLIENT_SECRET +CONFIG_SHELL +CXX +CXX_FOR_TARGET +DATA_DICTIONARY_X_API_KEY +DETERMINISTIC_BUILD +GRAFANA_ADMIN_PASSWORD +GRAFANA_ADMIN_USER +HOST_PATH +INFLUXDB_PASSWORD +IN_NIX_SHELL +LD +LD_DYLD_PATH +LD_FOR_TARGET +LOCALES +MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET +MASTER_DATA_X_API_KEY +NIX_BINTOOLS +NIX_BINTOOLS_FOR_TARGET +NIX_BINTOOLS_WRAPPER_TARGET_HOST_x86_64_apple_darwin +NIX_BINTOOLS_WRAPPER_TARGET_TARGET_x86_64_apple_darwin +NIX_BUILD_CORES +NIX_BUILD_TOP +NIX_CC +NIX_CC_FOR_TARGET +NIX_CC_WRAPPER_TARGET_HOST_x86_64_apple_darwin +NIX_CC_WRAPPER_TARGET_TARGET_x86_64_apple_darwin +NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE +NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE_FOR_TARGET +NIX_COREFOUNDATION_RPATH +NIX_DONT_SET_RPATH +NIX_DONT_SET_RPATH_FOR_BUILD +NIX_ENFORCE_NO_NATIVE +NIX_HARDENING_ENABLE +NIX_IGNORE_LD_THROUGH_GCC +NIX_INDENT_MAKE +NIX_LDFLAGS +NIX_LDFLAGS_FOR_TARGET +NIX_NO_SELF_RPATH +NIX_STORE +NM +NM_FOR_TARGET +PATH_LOCALE +PYTHONHASHSEED +PYTHONNOUSERSITE +PYTHONPATH +RANLIB +RANLIB_FOR_TARGET +SDKROOT +SIZE +SIZE_FOR_TARGET +SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH +STRINGS +STRINGS_FOR_TARGET +STRIP +STRIP_FOR_TARGET +TEMP +TEMPDIR +TMP +__CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING +__darwinAllowLocalNetworking +__impureHostDeps +__propagatedImpureHostDeps +__propagatedSandboxProfile +__sandboxProfile +buildInputs +builder +configureFlags +depsBuildBuild +depsBuildBuildPropagated +depsBuildTarget +depsBuildTargetPropagated +depsHostHost +depsHostHostPropagated +depsTargetTarget +depsTargetTargetPropagated +doCheck +doInstallCheck +gl_cv_func_getcwd_abort_bug +name +nativeBuildInputs +nobuildPhase +out +outputs +patches +phases +propagatedBuildInputs +propagatedNativeBuildInputs +shell +shellHook +stdenv +strictDeps +system ~NIX_PATH ~PATH

I also tried to install it "from source" as explained in the documentation but I got the same result in the end.

Here are more details about my nix-env installed packages:

cachix-0.3.7
direnv-2.21.3
nix-2.3.7
nix-direnv-1.1
nss-cacert-3.49.2

I must have mis-installed something as I am new to nix stuff so any help debugging my problem is very much appreciated!

Thank you!

[Mic92]

Have you added nix-direnv to your ~/.direnvrc, i.e. source $HOME/nix-direnv/direnvrc?

[rdelgatte]

Unfortunately I already tried doing that (after installing from source = https://github.com/nix-community/nix-direnv#installation-from-source) but it didn't help. I keep having the same result.
Do you have any other clue?

[Mic92]

To exclude any potential error sources, can you just clone the repository and than use the full path to the direnvrc in nix-direnv in your project .envrc?

i.e.:

# .envrc
source /User/bla/nix-direnv/direnvrc
use nix

[rdelgatte]

It looks a lot better this way! Thank you for your help 👍
What should we do about that? Do you have any clue about why the former option (installing from source = nix-community/nix-direnv#installation-from-source) did not work?

BTW because I did not install it using nix-env I am experiencing the same MacOS issue with grep described here: #3.

[Mic92]

I don't know why it is not picking up your .direnvrc in your home directory. You may want to post its content. Regarding grep on macOS it is probably the idea to just use the home-manager variant: https://github.com/nix-community/nix-direnv#home-manager

[rdelgatte]

Sorry for my late feedback. Here is my ~/.direnvrc file content:

source $HOME/nix-direnv/direnvrc

[Mic92]

@zimbatm I suppose also on macOS, direnv reads ~/.direnvrc?

[zimbatm]

it's the same logic as on Linux

[Mic92]

I updated https://github.com/nix-community/nix-direnv#with-nix-env to be more clear how to install nix.

[blaggacao]

Wouldn't it make sense to consider upstreaming this directly to direnv? Or does it still need evolution / refinement? Even with numtide/devshell the speedup is in the order of megaseconds. (Just normal seconds that feel mega long. 😉 )

[Mic92]

The cache invalidation is not sound. direnv/direnv#238
There might be cases when we need to re-evaluate the nix expression i.e. if imported file is updated. The generic use_nix from direnv does not have this problem but is slower.

[Mic92]

I think the questions has been answered.