Build failure: nixStatic (bash: Argument list too long)

[heywoodlh]

How does one actually build nixStatic without a full installation of Nix, such as with the Nix official docker image? It'd be nice to do a multi-stage Docker build like so:

FROM docker.io/nixos/nix AS nix-static-builder

RUN nix --extra-experimental-features "flakes nix-command" build -o /tmp/nix nixpkgs#nixStatic

FROM alpine

COPY --from=nix-static-builder /tmp/nix/bin/nix /usr/bin/nix

Also, is there any predictable URL to grab the static binary besides directly from Hydra? This seems to work for me:

nix run "nixpkgs#curl" -- -L https://hydra.nixos.org/job/nix/maintenance-$(nix --version | nix run "nixpkgs#gawk" -- '{print $3}' | cut -d'.' -f1-2)/buildStatic.nix.$(nix run "nixpkgs#busybox" -- arch)-linux/latest/download-by-type/file/binary-dist -o /nix-bin \
    && chmod +x /nix-bin

😄

Steps To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Attempt to build nixStatic without downloading from the binary cache, i.e. docker run -it --rm docker.io/nixos/nix nix --extra-experimental-features 'nix-command flakes' build -o /tmp/nix nixpkgs#nixStatic

2. My laptop running NixOS seems to build it just fine -- but I suspect it's pulling down from the binary cache

Build log

Build Log

(I can get the entire log if desired/needed -- I don't think it's necessary for this example)

❯ docker run -it --rm docker.io/nixos/nix nix --extra-experimental-features 'nix-command flakes' build -o /tmp/nix nixpkgs#nixStatic
error: builder for '/nix/store/28d5l059yypca26g7iria6yixg70q4rp-nix-static-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl-2.24.10.drv' failed with exit code 2;
       last 25 log lines:
       >   AR     src/libmain/libnixmain.a
       >   LD     src/libflake/libnixflake.a
       >   AR     src/libfetchers/libnixfetchers.a
       >   AR     src/libflake/libnixflake.a
       >   LD     src/libcmd/libnixcmd.a
       >   LD     tests/unit/libutil-support/libnixutil-test-support.a
       >   AR     tests/unit/libutil-support/libnixutil-test-support.a
       >   LD     src/libutil-c/libnixutilc.a
       >   AR     src/libutil-c/libnixutilc.a
       >   LD     tests/unit/libstore-support/libnixstore-test-support.a
       >   LD     src/libstore-c/libnixstorec.a
       >   AR     src/libstore-c/libnixstorec.a
       >   LD     tests/unit/libexpr-support/libnixexpr-test-support.a
       >   AR     tests/unit/libexpr-support/libnixexpr-test-support.a
       >   LD     src/libexpr-c/libnixexprc.a
       >   AR     tests/unit/libstore-support/libnixstore-test-support.a
       >   LD     tests/unit/libutil/libnixutil-tests
       >   AR     src/libcmd/libnixcmd.a
       >   AR     src/libexpr-c/libnixexprc.a
       >   LD     src/libexpr/libnixexpr.a
       >   AR     src/libexpr/libnixexpr.a
       >   LD     src/libstore/libnixstore.a
       >   AR     src/libstore/libnixstore.a
       > make: /nix/store/0irlcqx2n3qm6b1pc9rsd2i8qpvcccaj-bash-5.2p37/bin/bash: Argument list too long
       > make: *** [mk/lib.mk:85: src/nix/nix] Error 127
       For full logs, run 'nix log /nix/store/28d5l059yypca26g7iria6yixg70q4rp-nix-static-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl-2.24.10.drv'.

Additional context

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[celesrenata]

I get this failure in 24.05 when trying to upgrade, or from unstable trying to install 24.11, distributive builds also fail on this package.

[celesrenata]

Looks like our error is showing up in hydra.

https://hydra.nixos.org/build/278785914/nixlog/1

[Artturin]

Since it seems to be a musl only thing and nix has completely replaced autoconf with meson(not in nixpkgs yet) I won't look further in to it.

If someone wants to look in to it then probably start at
https://github.com/NixOS/nix/blob/278e02c0efc83bdaec0c93bb8315560528516ab0/mk/lib.mk#L85
https://github.com/NixOS/nix/blob/278e02c0efc83bdaec0c93bb8315560528516ab0/mk/programs.mk#L34

[Artturin]

You can attempt to build nix-everything-static in NixOS/nix

EDIT:
That attempts to build the perl bindings and perl static is broken in their nixpkgs revision so comment everything nix-perl-bindings in ./packaging/everything.nix

Perl cross-compiles on master(and 24.11 probably) so the bindings should be fixed after NixOS/nix#11566

[ShamrockLee]

How does one actually build nixStatic without a full installation of Nix, such as with the Nix official docker image?

The Hydra job nix:master:buildStatic.x86_64-linux (for the Nix project, building the Nix master branch) builds the static Nix binary on Nix master. This URL downloads the binary: https://hydra.nixos.org/job/nix/master/buildStatic.x86_64-linux/latest/download-by-type/file/binary-dist As Eelco Dolstra suggested in the NixOS Discourse reply: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/building-a-statically-linked-nix-for-hpc-environments/10865/16

The Hydra jobs nixpkgs:trunk:nixStatic.x86_64-linux and nixos:release-24.05:nixpkgs.nixStatic.x86_64-linux builds the nixStatic package from Nixpkgs release-24.05 and master, respectively. The Nixpkgs 24.11 one is failing due to this issue. It's a bit more complicated to get the binary without a working nix command. Here's a way provided by Felix Uhl: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/where-can-i-get-a-statically-built-nix/34253/6

[heywoodlh]

@ShamrockLee thanks for the pointer on the URL to the latest nixStatic binary. For my use-cases (creating a container image with a statically linked Nix binary installed) this works:

curl -L https://hydra.nixos.org/job/nix/master/buildStatic.$(arch)-linux/latest/download-by-type/file/binary-dist -o /nix-bin

I imagine most people like myself are indifferent to building the binary and should be content fetching a pre-built copy. It'd be nice if there was a cleaner URL or if it was more easily discoverable that a statically linked version of the Nix binary exists (i.e. perhaps on the download page).

---

However, I'll leave this issue open for others who run into it -- and it'd probably be nice to get the issue resolved at some point.

[ShamrockLee]

It'd be nice if there was a cleaner URL or if it was more easily discoverable that a statically linked version of the Nix binary exists (i.e. perhaps on the download page).

I hope so, too. Valentin opened an issue NixOS/nixos-homepage#963 to track this, and I wrote a Discourse article Make statically-linked Nix binaries discoverable hoping to get more attention for this.

[heywoodlh]

I noticed the URL points to a fairly old version of Nix. Is there a consistent URL for the absolute latest version of statically linked Nix?

[ShamrockLee]

That's strange. It's the first time I notice this.

[heywoodlh]

I've noticed this URL scheme works on newer releases -- but it'd be nice to not have to know the major release number:

https://hydra.nixos.org/job/nix/maintenance-2.25/buildStatic.nix.$(arch)-linux/latest/download-by-type/file/binary-dist

So, if you have any other suggestions on getting the absolute latest version, I'd appreciate it 😄 Hydra is kind of a beast to navigate.

[ShamrockLee]

It seems that the latest job in the Hydra job nix:master:buildStatic:x86_64-linux is indeed from 2024-06-11.

The relevant job seems to be nix:master:buildStatic.nix-everything.x86_64-linux. It doesn't seem to provide download URL like before.

[ShamrockLee]

@heywoodlh I corrected the URL part of my previous comment.

[Rucadi]

Still an issue, is there a way to get the latest nix statically-linked from some cache?