Cannot lock unlocked input

[DavHau]

Not sure if this intentional, but with recent nix versions (using 2.23.x), I cannot persist an input override anymore that points to a local unclean repo.

$ nix flake lock --override-input clan-core $HOME/projects/clan/clan-core
warning: will not write lock file of flake [...] because it has an unlocked input ('git+file:///[...]/clan/clan-core')

Since nix now defaults to use --no-write-lock-file in this case, it is not possible to persist the override. I found this capability useful, as it allows me to continue operating on the overridden flake, without having to pass --override-input every single time. This is specifically needed, when I operate on the flake via some other tools, which do not support passing extra options to nix.

Though I can see that doing this might be bad practice, as there is a risk of people publishing non-reproducible flakes if that is allowed. So, not sure if a feature or a bug.

Add :+1: to issues you find important.

[roberth]

We could store a diff in or around the lock file. Such functionality would also benefit https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/11160, because unmerged PR commits also have a habit of disappearing.

[takeda]

This is a huge regression for me. No longer I can't use --override-input I get the same error when also referencing a local directory in flake.nix.

Why was this change necessary? Is there a workaround for it?

First we had change that prevented using a relative path and now this. It makes it so much more problematic testing things before making a commit.

Edit: looks like even having a local commit is not enough I need to push my change to repo and reference it to be able to use it. There's no way this isn't a bug is it? How can I use a local repo now?

[pwaller]

Also having the problem here of none of several methods I tried which worked in older versions of nix yielding the ability to override the nixpkgs input of a flake to point to an on-disk work in progress of nixpkgs.

• It's also not clear to me how to parse or act on the warning.
  • In what sense is the given input not locked?
  • What should I do to lock it?
  • I'm being given this message while doing nix flake lock --override-input <input> <override> <input>, which I would expect to have the effect of addressing the given warning, but that doesn't happen.
• The warning suggests that merely the flake lock was not written, but I suspect from what I'm seeing that in addition to the flake not being written, the specified flake is not being used at all and instead it's being ignored in favour of whatever is in the original lock file. This is not clear from the output.

[pwaller]

~Workaround for now (newest working version of nix is nix_2_20):~

nix run nixpkgs#nixVersions.nix_2_20 -- flake lock --override-input nixpkgs git+file:///home/pwaller/.local/src/nixpkgs

(edit, no, sorry - this also doesn't work, yielding: error: lock file contains unlocked input, during the build).

I think what the warning message might be trying to say is that the flake input be a dirty input, but it doesn't say that. At least to me, 'locking' is a nix concept, and 'dirty' is a git concept, so when the message says 'unlocked input' it is not clear that the underlying reason is a dirty git repository.

[takeda]

I get it to work, but I had:

1. commit the change
2. make sure there are no uncommitted files when invoking git status

If this is not a bug and it was intended to work like that it is really bad idea. Frankly I wish the reverse was possible. I sometimes use nix to set up dev environment and was in places where they did not like when I committed nix files with the project, so it makes really hard to use Nix if the whole team doesn't buy it.

[lboklin]

I can't figure out how to fix the problem. I change the input url from a local repo to a remote repo, commit the change, and then run nix flake update and I still get the error. What exactly am I supposed to do in this situation?

[lboklin]

Furthermore, if I entirely remove the entry from the lock file and run nix flake lock, I get error: lock file references missing node '<input-flake>'. This must be a bug, surely?

[RooSoft]

Also got this error... do I understand that it's now impossible to refer to a local folder with uncommited changes?

I am developing a flake that contains microVM configurations. The local machine can then refer to it with its specific environment, allowing for production, staging, development, etc.... While in development, I got to somehow test those changes, but the flake itself is unuseable without a host. So, I tend to refer to it from a development host to make sure it makes sense before committing new code.

Now, it seems that whenever I create a new microVM configuration, I got to commit untested stuff before I can even try it at all.

Is there a workaround for that specific case?

[bendlas]

I am also in dire need for a solution for this. I don't want to create a commit every time I'm trying out a change in a flake I'm referring to ..

[nixos-discourse]

This issue has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/refer-to-a-flake-in-a-local-folder/57000/2