nix flake clone: Support all input types by edolstra · Pull Request #229 · DeterminateSystems/nix-src

edolstra · 2025-10-10T14:15:22Z

Motivation

This makes nix flake clone work on all input types, including tarballs, e.g.

# nix flake clone "https://flakehub.com/f/NixOS/nixpkgs/*" --dest nixpkgs

Context

Summary by CodeRabbit

New Features
- Support cloning tarball-based flakes into a directory via flake clone.
Bug Fixes
- More robust path handling and clearer errors when the destination already exists during flake cloning.
Refactor
- Standardized destination path handling and propagated store context for cloning operations to improve reliability.
Tests
- Added functional tests covering cloning of tarball flakes, presence of flake.nix in the unpacked directory, and error behavior on re-clone into an existing path.

For input types that have no concept of cloning, we now default to copying the entire source tree.

coderabbitai · 2025-10-10T14:16:32Z

Walkthrough

Introduces a store-aware cloning pathway. Updates clone method signatures in Input, InputScheme, and scheme implementations (Git, GitHub, GitLab, SourceHut) to accept ref and std::filesystem::path. CmdFlakeClone updated to pass store. Implements store-backed cloning in fetchers.cc. Adds functional tests for cloning tarball flakes and existing-destination errors.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Core fetchers logic `src/libfetchers/fetchers.cc`	Refactors Input::clone and InputScheme::clone to accept ref and std::filesystem::path; implements store-backed accessor cloning with existence check, activity logging, streaming to sink, and path restore.
Git-based schemes `src/libfetchers/git.cc`, `src/libfetchers/github.cc`	Updates clone signatures to include ref and std::filesystem::path; propagates store to downstream clone calls for Git, GitHub, GitLab, SourceHut input schemes.
Public headers / API `src/libfetchers/include/nix/fetchers/fetchers.hh`	Changes public API: Input::clone and InputScheme::clone now require ref and std::filesystem::path.
CLI flake command `src/nix/flake.cc`	CmdFlakeClone destDir type changed to std::filesystem::path; passes store to input.clone(store, destDir).
Functional tests `tests/functional/flakes/flakes.sh`	Adds tests for cloning tarball flakes, verifies unpacked flake.nix presence, and asserts error on re-clone into existing path.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  autonumber
  actor User
  participant CLI as nix flake clone
  participant Store
  participant Input as Input
  participant Scheme as InputScheme
  participant FS as Filesystem

  User->>CLI: nix flake clone URL destDir
  CLI->>Store: resolve(URL)
  Store-->>CLI: Input
  CLI->>Input: clone(Store, destDir)
  Input->>Scheme: clone(Store, Input, destDir)

  rect rgba(220,235,255,0.5)
    note over Scheme: Store-backed cloning
    Scheme->>FS: check destDir exists
    alt dest exists
      Scheme-->>CLI: error (path exists)
    else
      Scheme->>Store: makeAccessor(Input)
      Scheme->>Store: openSink(destDir)
      Store-->>Scheme: sink
      Scheme->>Store: stream accessor -> sink
      Scheme->>Store: restorePath(sink)
      Scheme-->>CLI: success
    end
  end

Estimated code review effort

🎯 3 (Moderate) | ⏱️ ~25 minutes

Possibly related PRs

Only try to substitute input if fetching from its original location fails #202 — Also modifies src/libfetchers/fetchers.cc around accessor/substitution and store accessors, overlapping with the new store-backed clone flow.

Poem

In burrows of code where fetchers abide,
I nibbled the paths, with Store as my guide.
We packed up the flakes, to sinks we bestowed—
If a den was taken, we paused the load.
Hop, clone, restore—now neatly aligned.
Carrots committed, dependencies signed. 🥕

Pre-merge checks and finishing touches

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 0.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.	You can run `@coderabbitai generate docstrings` to improve docstring coverage.

✅ Passed checks (2 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title Check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely conveys the primary change by specifying that the `nix flake clone` command now supports all input types, directly reflecting the pull request’s objective and implementation.

✨ Finishing touches

📝 Generate docstrings

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

Create PR with unit tests
Post copyable unit tests in a comment
Commit unit tests in branch eelcodolstra/fh-1073-nix-flake-clone-doesnt-understand-urls

📜 Recent review details

Configuration used: CodeRabbit UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 80d3406 and 9bf4eba.

📒 Files selected for processing (6)

src/libfetchers/fetchers.cc (3 hunks)
src/libfetchers/git.cc (1 hunks)
src/libfetchers/github.cc (3 hunks)
src/libfetchers/include/nix/fetchers/fetchers.hh (2 hunks)
src/nix/flake.cc (2 hunks)
tests/functional/flakes/flakes.sh (1 hunks)

🧰 Additional context used

🧬 Code graph analysis (6)

src/libfetchers/git.cc (1)

src/libfetchers/github.cc (32)

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tests/functional/flakes/flakes.sh (1)

src/libfetchers/fetchers.cc (4)

clone (393-397)

clone (393-393)

clone (509-521)

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src/libfetchers/include/nix/fetchers/fetchers.hh (2)

src/libfetchers/git.cc (18)

store (286-305)

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src/libfetchers/github.cc (14)

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src/nix/flake.cc (1)

src/libfetchers/github.cc (16)

store (235-235)

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src/libfetchers/fetchers.cc (4)

src/libfetchers/git.cc (20)

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getAccessor (863-883)

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src/libfetchers/github.cc (14)

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src/libfetchers/git-utils.cc (4)

getAccessor (1286-1296)

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getAccessor (1298-1312)

getAccessor (1299-1299)

src/libutil/archive.cc (2)

restorePath (275-280)

restorePath (275-275)

src/libfetchers/github.cc (2)

src/libfetchers/git.cc (18)

store (286-305)

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src/nix/flake.cc (14)

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⏰ Context from checks skipped due to timeout of 90000ms. You can increase the timeout in your CodeRabbit configuration to a maximum of 15 minutes (900000ms). (2)

GitHub Check: build_aarch64-darwin / build
GitHub Check: build_x86_64-linux / build

🔇 Additional comments (1)

src/libfetchers/github.cc (1)

429-435: LGTM! Clone method signatures updated correctly.

All three implementations (GitHub, GitLab, SourceHut) properly updated to the new API with ref<Store> store and std::filesystem::path destDir parameters, and correctly propagate the store through the internal clone chain.

Also applies to: 509-518, 601-609

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands and usage tips.}

github-actions · 2025-10-10T14:19:01Z

🚀 Deployed on https://68e915d3afbfe71a28da7696--determinate-nix.netlify.app

edolstra added 2 commits October 10, 2025 13:38

Input::clone(): Use std::filesystem::path

2656355

nix flake clone: Support all input types

9bf4eba

For input types that have no concept of cloning, we now default to copying the entire source tree.

github-actions Bot temporarily deployed to pull request October 10, 2025 14:19 Inactive

cole-h approved these changes Oct 10, 2025

View reviewed changes

edolstra added this pull request to the merge queue Oct 13, 2025

Merged via the queue into main with commit 51bf3ea Oct 13, 2025
35 checks passed

edolstra deleted the eelcodolstra/fh-1073-nix-flake-clone-doesnt-understand-urls branch October 13, 2025 11:04

edolstra mentioned this pull request Nov 17, 2025

nix flake clone: Support all input types NixOS/nix#14581

Merged

This was referenced Nov 18, 2025

Git fetcher: Don't compute revCount/lastModified if they're already specified #269

Merged

Avoid unnecessary Git refetches #270

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coderabbitai Bot mentioned this pull request Apr 7, 2026

Input::getAccessorUnchecked(): Wrap fetches in a path lock #410

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nix flake clone: Support all input types#229

nix flake clone: Support all input types#229
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edolstra commented Oct 10, 2025 •

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Motivation

Context

Summary by CodeRabbit

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Walkthrough

Changes

Sequence Diagram(s)

Estimated code review effort

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edolstra commented Oct 10, 2025 •

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