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Dangling symlinks for /etc/services, /etc/hosts and other files should be ignored at sandbox setup time #893

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opened 2025-06-30 00:06:31 +00:00 by raito · 0 comments
raito commented 2025-06-30 00:06:31 +00:00
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Describe the bug

In disaster recovery scenarios, nixos-enter will chroot into the target system and running Lix from there may have to deal with dangling symlinks.

Lix does not ignore these dangling symlinks and will abort the build.

Steps To Reproduce

  1. nixos-enter to workaround #892
  2. Run a nix build.
  3. See error

Expected behavior

Lix should warn on the dangling symlinks and ignore them.

nix --version output

≤ 2.94.0-dev 286aa409b2.

Additional context

This came up in recovery attempts, reported by @delroth.

## Describe the bug In disaster recovery scenarios, `nixos-enter` will chroot into the target system and running Lix from there may have to deal with dangling symlinks. Lix does not ignore these dangling symlinks and will abort the build. ## Steps To Reproduce 1. `nixos-enter` to workaround #892 2. Run a nix build. 3. See error ## Expected behavior Lix should warn on the dangling symlinks and ignore them. ## `nix --version` output ≤ 2.94.0-dev 286aa409b24e. ## Additional context This came up in recovery attempts, reported by @delroth.
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Affects/CppNix

Probably affects CppNix. This is a best-effort tag for troubles in old code; it exists to inform the CppNix team about problems they might care about also.

  
Affects/Nightly

Found in Lix nightly.

  
Affects/Only nightly

Tag for regressions in Lix nightly. We intend to fix all of these prior to releases.

  
Affects/Stable

Affects the stable release of Lix. Usually such issues affect nightly too but there is no guarantee.

  
Area/build-packaging

regarding the building or packaging of Lix itself

  
Area/cli

The command line interface of Lix

  
Area/evaluator

libexpr and anything else related to the evaluation of Nix expressions

  
Area/fetching

Fetching sources or other materials from the World Wide Web in Lix

  
Area/flakes

   
Area/language

language design, features, extensions, etc

  
Area/lix ci

Lix's own CI and deployment pipeline

  
Area/nix-eval-jobs

nix-eval-jobs for Lix

  
Area/profiles

profiles: nix-env, nix profile, and installer flavors all alike

  
Area/protocol

The protocol, used for communicating between the client and the daemon

  
Area/releng

Release engineering

  
Area/remote-builds

remote builds

  
Area/repl

nix repl

  
Area/repl/debugger

The --debugger that brings up a Lix repl

  
Area/store

libstore and anything else relating to the Nix store

  
bug

it's a bug

  
Context
contributors
This issue might require some context that isn't written down. It might be possible to handle as a person who already worked on this area.

  
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drive-by
This issue contains all the necessary information to do a drive-by contribution: that is, you don't have to talk with anyone at all to successfully solve it!

  
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maintainers
This issue requires a lot of know-how. Attention from maintainers is needed to proceed.

  
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RFD
This issue needs discussion from multiple maintainers and interested parties: it's a Request For Discussion.

  
crash 💥

Lix crashes (possibly bad error handling)

  
Cross Compilation

   
devx

development experience issues

  
docs

requires or is about documentation changes

  
Downstream Dependents

regarding an external tool's usage with Lix (e.g. nix-eval-jobs)

  
E/easy

bug is relatively simple and could simply be fixed with some minor effort

  
E/hard

this issue should probably be solved with close involvement of an expert

  
E/help wanted

maintainers may not get to this soon, but we want it fixed

  
E/reproducible

This bug is reproducible and obvious.

  
E/requires rearchitecture

this bug cannot be fixed properly without fixing a known architectural flaw

  
imported

Issue imported from upstream nix (please do not remove this label, it will cause dupes if import is rerun)

  
Language/Bash

   
Language/C++

   
Language/NixLang

   
Language/Python

   
Language/Rust

   
Needs Langver

We can't get to this until we implement language versioning

  
OS/Linux

Affects specifically Lix on Linux

  
OS/macOS

Affects specifically Lix on macOS

  
performance

make lix go faster

  
regression

This is a regression since some previous version of Lix

  
release-blocker

Blocks public release

  
stability

Fixing this makes the software more stable

  
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Blocked on something

  
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invalid
not our bug, duplicate, similar

  
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postponed
closed but should maybe look at later (generally with S-wontfix)

  
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wontfix
We chose not to change this (see issue comments for more detail).

  
testing

Tests that should be added

  
testing/flakey

Tests that are unreliable/flakey (not to be confused with flakes that test)

  
Topic/Large Scale Installations

Large scale installations of Lix, e.g. NixOS Hydra, Lix CI, big corporate installations etc.

  
ux

makes the user experience better :)

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performance
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Reference: lix-project/lix#893
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