Nix installation failed

[Greg-Bm]

Describe the bug

Unexpected behavior when attempting to install Nix

Expected behavior

Nix gets installed

What happened

Nix installation failed

Additional context

Attempted to uninstall and reinstall Nix several times previously. The last few times, installing did not work.

*Dump of output ~~> Setting up the basic directory structure

~~> Installing Nix cp: cannot overwrite directory /nix/store/5r0j4bh564wgdznzpbpdqkp6xkjqha22-libkrb5-1.18/sbin with non-directory ./store/5r0j4bh564wgdznzpbpdqkp6xkjqha22-libkrb5-1.18/sbin cp: cannot overwrite directory /nix/store/f43lci9lxr5nbm4wsf0qc6hdhzzimmbx-swift-corefoundation/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/Current with non-directory ./store/f43lci9lxr5nbm4wsf0qc6hdhzzimmbx-swift-corefoundation/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/Current cp: cannot overwrite directory /nix/store/f43lci9lxr5nbm4wsf0qc6hdhzzimmbx-swift-corefoundation/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Headers with non-directory ./store/f43lci9lxr5nbm4wsf0qc6hdhzzimmbx-swift-corefoundation/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Headers cp: cannot overwrite directory /nix/store/f43lci9lxr5nbm4wsf0qc6hdhzzimmbx-swift-corefoundation/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Modules with non-directory ./store/f43lci9lxr5nbm4wsf0qc6hdhzzimmbx-swift-corefoundation/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Modules cp: cannot overwrite directory /nix/store/g29afqkiqmxn9p868vfcsla5iv0hr66r-apple-framework-Security/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Resources with non-directory ./store/g29afqkiqmxn9p868vfcsla5iv0hr66r-apple-framework-Security/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Resources cp: cannot overwrite directory /nix/store/g29afqkiqmxn9p868vfcsla5iv0hr66r-apple-framework-Security/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Resources with non-directory ./store/g29afqkiqmxn9p868vfcsla5iv0hr66r-apple-framework-Security/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Resources cp: cannot overwrite directory /nix/store/g29afqkiqmxn9p868vfcsla5iv0hr66r-apple-framework-Security/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/Current with non-directory ./store/g29afqkiqmxn9p868vfcsla5iv0hr66r-apple-framework-Security/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/Current cp: cannot overwrite directory /nix/store/g29afqkiqmxn9p868vfcsla5iv0hr66r-apple-framework-Security/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Headers with non-directory ./store/g29afqkiqmxn9p868vfcsla5iv0hr66r-apple-framework-Security/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Headers cp: cannot overwrite directory /nix/store/hvy3myc3ddgrm737w7gy7hrcdmwcs5ij-apple-framework-IOKit/Library/Frameworks/IOKit.framework/Resources with non-directory ./store/hvy3myc3ddgrm737w7gy7hrcdmwcs5ij-apple-framework-IOKit/Library/Frameworks/IOKit.framework/Resources cp: cannot overwrite directory /nix/store/hvy3myc3ddgrm737w7gy7hrcdmwcs5ij-apple-framework-IOKit/Library/Frameworks/IOKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources with non-directory ./store/hvy3myc3ddgrm737w7gy7hrcdmwcs5ij-apple-framework-IOKit/Library/Frameworks/IOKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources cp: cannot overwrite directory /nix/store/hvy3myc3ddgrm737w7gy7hrcdmwcs5ij-apple-framework-IOKit/Library/Frameworks/IOKit.framework/Versions/Current with non-directory ./store/hvy3myc3ddgrm737w7gy7hrcdmwcs5ij-apple-framework-IOKit/Library/Frameworks/IOKit.framework/Versions/Current cp: cannot overwrite directory /nix/store/hvy3myc3ddgrm737w7gy7hrcdmwcs5ij-apple-framework-IOKit/Library/Frameworks/IOKit.framework/Headers with non-directory ./store/hvy3myc3ddgrm737w7gy7hrcdmwcs5ij-apple-framework-IOKit/Library/Frameworks/IOKit.framework/Headers cp: cannot overwrite directory /nix/store/pr5jawhqh1sad0q5b5mip31kxwzk7igj-libkrb5-1.18/sbin with non-directory ./store/pr5jawhqh1sad0q5b5mip31kxwzk7igj-libkrb5-1.18/sbin

---- oh no! -------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeeze, something went wrong. If you can take all the output and open an issue, we'd love to fix the problem so nobody else has this issue.

:(

We'd love to help if you need it.

You can open an issue at https://github.com/nixos/nix/issues

Or feel free to contact the team:

• Matrix: #nix:nixos.org
• IRC: in #nixos on irc.libera.chat
• twitter: @nixos_org
• forum: https://discourse.nixos.org

[abathur]

Are you following the uninstall directions at https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/installation/installing-binary.html#macos?

Also, why are you trying to reinstall?

[Greg-Bm]

I followed the uninstall instructions. I was trying to reinstall because I believed that doing so could fix problems that I had with getting plutus libraries to work.

[abathur]

How long have you had Nix installed?

I'm not super familiar with this specific error, but since it's complaining about overwriting, we know there's already something in your Nix store. This likely means that you aren't deleting the Nix Store volume (step 7 in the linked instructions). (Unless you're on a pre-Catalina macOS?)

[Greg-Bm]

I had Nix installed for a few days.

[Greg-Bm]

OK, so I did that and the installation worked this time. Thanks!