setup nix with determinate systems installer

[plastikfan]

Set up Nix on macOS using flakes, nix-darwin and home-manager

[plastikfan]

Ok starting again on a new host, yemaya. Install with:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install

plastikfan@yemaya ~ % curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install
info: downloading installer https://install.determinate.systems/nix/tag/v0.36.2/nix-installer-aarch64-darwin
 INFO nix-installer v0.36.2
`nix-installer` needs to run as `root`, attempting to escalate now via `sudo`...
Password:
 INFO nix-installer v0.36.2
 INFO For a more robust Nix installation, use the Determinate package for macOS: https://dtr.mn/determinate-nix

Cut the fuss with Determinate Nix?

Proceed? ([Y]es/[n]o/[e]xplain): e

Cut the fuss with Determinate Nix?
Determinate Nix is Determinate Systems' validated and secure downstream Nix distribution for enterprises. It comes bundled with Determinate Nixd, a helpful daemon that automates some otherwise-unpleasant aspects of using Nix, such as garbage collection, and enables you to easily authenticate with FlakeHub.

For more details: https://dtr.mn/determinate-nix

Proceed? ([Y]es/[n]o): y
Nix install plan (v0.36.2)
Planner: macos

Configured settings:
* determinate_nix: true

Planned actions:
* Install Determinate Nixd
* Create an encrypted APFS volume `Nix Store` for Nix on `disk3` and add it to `/etc/fstab` mounting on `/nix`
* Extract the bundled Nix (originally from /nix/store/lwn6ivba8zjf7k63v48vpj9s0dvnrvzj-nix-binary-tarball-2.26.1/nix-2.26.1-aarch64-darwin.tar.xz)
* Create a directory tree in `/nix`
* Synchronize /nix/var ownership
* Move the downloaded Nix into `/nix`
* Synchronize /nix/store ownership
* Create build users (UID 351-382) and group (GID 350)
* Configure Time Machine exclusions
* Setup the default Nix profile
* Place the Nix configuration in `/etc/nix/nix.conf`
* Configure the shell profiles
* Configuring zsh to support using Nix in non-interactive shells
* Create a `launchctl` plist to put Nix into your PATH
* Configure the Determinate Nix daemon
* Remove directory `/nix/temp-install-dir`


Proceed? ([Y]es/[n]o/[e]xplain): y
 INFO Step: Install Determinate Nixd
 INFO Step: Create an encrypted APFS volume `Nix Store` for Nix on `disk3` and add it to `/etc/fstab` mounting on `/nix`
 INFO Step: Provision Nix
 INFO Step: Create build users (UID 351-382) and group (GID 350)
 INFO Step: Configure Time Machine exclusions
 INFO Step: Configure Nix
 INFO Step: Configuring zsh to support using Nix in non-interactive shells
 INFO Step: Create a `launchctl` plist to put Nix into your PATH
 INFO Step: Configure the Determinate Nix daemon
 INFO Step: Remove directory `/nix/temp-install-dir`
Nix was installed successfully!
To get started using Nix, open a new shell or run `. /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/profile.d/nix-daemon.sh`

plastikfan@yemaya ~ % 

[plastikfan]

After having installed nix, the nix command is still not available, so something is missing.

I found this zero to nix for additional reference material;.

• nix command not found
• according to nix-env and nix-build not found after installation (debian buster), need to add this to .zshrc: export PATH="$PATH:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin"

It turns out that my .zshrc file had overridden the PATH variable:

export PATH=/opt/homebrew/bin:/usr/local/bin:/System/Cryptexes/App/usr/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/local/bin:/var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/bin:/var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/appleinternal/bin

... which contained no reference to nix. Removing this entirely resoved the isse, so nix is being added by some other means.

[plastikfan]

I also just discovered that brew is not available but it is installed (/opt/homebrew/bin still exists), so we need to re-apply the profile changes that are required as part of the homebrew installation process (also see: Zsh: command not found: brew. This is a very good resource, it explains very well the use of the PATH variable and where it should be defined; stuff that I thought I knew, but was a bit hazy on. ⚠️ Remember this resource.

Actually, it turns out that on an Apple Silicon mac, there are slightly different requirements....

I added

export PATH=/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH

to ~/.zprofile

... and this worked.