type = "copy" does not work when sourcing a directory

[Aqa-Ib]

hjem.users.username.files.test = { 
  type = "copy";
  source = ./test # is a directory
};

Does nothing.

Thanks.

[Gerg-L]

This is currently not supported
https://github.com/feel-co/smfh/blob/master/src%2Ffile_util.rs#L336-L347

What's your use case?

[Aqa-Ib]

My usecase is to copy a directory recursively, to be able to make runtime changes on its files. In practice, I would like to allow some programs to modify their own config files at runtime. I have found an external solution to my usecase though: https://github.com/Rexcrazy804/hjem-impure

Cheers!

[Gerg-L]

inside of hjem this should work for normal paths ( not derivations )

{ lib, ... }:
{
  hjem.users.username.files =
    let
      recurseIntoDir =
        target_path: source_dir:
        builtins.listToAttrs (
          map (
            x:
            let
              target = target_path + (lib.removePrefix (toString source_dir) (toString x));
            in
            {
              name = target;
              value = {
                type = "copy";
                source = x;
                inherit target;
              };
            }
          ) (lib.filesystem.listFilesRecursive source_dir)
        );
    in
    {
      # other files
    }
    // (recurseIntoDir "test" ./test);
}

[benjumanji]

I would be also interested in this feature. It would be a usage outside of hjem. I would like to use smfh activate as part of a boot time activation that copies s6 service directories out of the store into /run/user/$uid/services, recursively + change permissions. Understand if it's out of scope for the tool, but I would use it.

[Gerg-L]

@benjumanji the problem is that nothing can be guaranteed with a recursive symlink without a state file, which is an approach i considered but ended up not going with.

So we must work around the problem. Either in pure nix, or inside a nix builder.

I did However have an idea about adding a subcommand for generating a list of manifest entries from an existing directory. This would make some magical things easier. Though without that feature you could get something fairly equivalent by using a bash script and some jq magic... or if you don't need manifest diffing or the attempted strictness of smfh just write a bash script which uses lndir and chmod

[benjumanji]

@Gerg-L I get it: effectively the feature undermines the atomic promise. I can just stick to a simple script. I just already had smfh in the loop for other purposes. Thanks for your response!

(also thanks for lndir hint, I hadn't heard of it)

[safwannayeem569]

Any update on this?