offline install nix neovim saved in other machine via usbstick？

[qlibp]

How could I save neovim stuff within /nix/store into a tarball file and then load it in other machines offline？

[qlibp]

already try nix copy cmd, but it says source tree can’t find /flake.nix. But I find that flake file in /nix/store

[qlibp]

yep, both nix copy from and nix copy to needs --no-check-sigs, all stuff get copied inside /nix/store now. But when I try to nix run in kickstarter's repo, it tries to download stuff from the internet, how can I tell flake to use the local /nix/store cache without downloading anything else?

[mrcjkb]

https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/command-ref/new-cli/nix3-run#miscellaneous-global-options

[qlibp]

have tried --offline flag, it will still download nixpkg and flake stuff from internet. Is nixpkg and flake stuff not copied in using nix copy? Not sure what's get copied using nix copy. Thx for your help!

root@b7c323601b36:~/test_nix_with_nvim/kickstart-nix.nvim# nix run --offline .#nvim
error:
       … while calling the 'import' builtin
         at /nix/store/c717ywya6y80b89rn9gwr7haa7lhqzym-source/flake.nix:35:14:
           34|     flake-utils.lib.eachSystem supportedSystems (system: let
           35|       pkgs = import nixpkgs {
             |              ^
           36|         inherit system;

       … while realising the context of a path

       … in the condition of the assert statement
         at «nix-internal»/call-flake.nix:66:13:
           65|           if node.flake or true then
           66|             assert builtins.isFunction flake.outputs;
             |             ^
           67|             result

       (stack trace truncated; use '--show-trace' to show the full trace)

       error: unable to download 'https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/44d0940ea560dee511026a53f0e2e2cde489b4d4.tar.gz': Timeout was reached (28)

[mrcjkb]

nix copy --from should copy the derivation to the nix store path, so you should be able to run /nix/store/.../bin/nvim. There's no need for nix run.

[qlibp]

oh wow! It works! I think I should start analysing how it actually works. It surprise me that /nix/store/xxx-neovim can load config from the right place and call pylsp within/nix/store. Though I know that the flake specify the rtp of neovim, but I still can’t figure out the whole picture.

Anyway, thanks a lot!

[mrcjkb]

That's because nix copy copies all the nix store paths that the nvim nix store path transitively depends on 😄
Glad to hear it's working for you!

[qlibp]

Hey there, would you mind elaborate more for me on the reason why nix run doesn’t work here?

If i just symlink the neovim binary, it seems that I have no way to use other nix cmd to activate a dev env?

[mrcjkb]

I don't understand the question.