Fix NixOS specific build issues (#60)

/bin/bash is unavailable on NixOS by default. This breaks many bazel
assumptions and causes build failures such as:

```
  ...
  process-wrapper-legacy.cc:80: "execvp(/bin/bash, ...)": No such file or directory
  ...
```

By unsetting `incompatible_strict_action_env` [0], conditionally (on
NixOS) setting `shell_executable` [1] to the bash in the Nix store, and
by setting the `bazel-wrapper` PATH with
`writeShellApplication.runtimeInputs` we are able to avoid these errors.

Finally, tag several targets in //example as "manual" so they are not
automatically built with the host toolchain, since this currently fails
on NixOS. This should be addressed in a follow-up commit.

Testing was performed using nixpkgs supplied bazelisk [3] on Luke
Peterson's and Michael Schneider's NixOS machines. This itself presented
issues, as this package is documented with `BEWARE: This package does
not work on NixOS.` Out of the box this is true, but can be worked
around with `programs.nix-ld.enable = true` [4] in `configuration.nix`.

Special thanks to Oliver Lee and Michael Schneider during the final day
of Nixcademy NixOS training. This was a great collaboration!

[0]:
https://bazel.build/reference/command-line-reference#flag--incompatible_strict_action_env
[1]:
https://bazel.build/reference/command-line-reference#flag--shell_executable
[2]:
https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/unstable/#trivial-builder-writeShellApplication
[3]:
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/nixos-25.05/pkgs/by-name/ba/bazelisk/package.nix
[4]: https://github.com/nix-community/nix-ld

Author: hazelnusse

.bazelrc

@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ common --action_env="BAZEL_DO_NOT_DETECT_CPP_TOOLCHAIN=1"
 common --announce_rc
 common --color=yes
 common --curses=yes
-common --incompatible_strict_action_env
 common --ui_actions_shown=20
 common --progress_in_terminal_title
 common --enable_platform_specific_config
@@ -40,4 +39,5 @@ test --test_output=errors
 test --test_summary=detailed
 test --test_verbose_timeout_warnings
 
+try-import %workspace%/.nixos-autoconfig/bazelrc
 try-import %workspace%/user.bazelrc

.gitignore

@@ -7,3 +7,6 @@
 
 # ignore Nix out links to dev shell application
 /.bazel-wrapper/
+
+# ignore NixOS specific bazelrc
+/.nixos-autoconfig/

README.md

@@ -94,4 +94,7 @@ transition_config_test(
 # developing
 
 Developing requires `bash`, `nix`, and coreutils on the `$PATH` to bootstrap
-the Nix shell application used in `tools/bazel`.
+the Nix shell application used in `tools/bazel`. On NixOS, [nix-ld][nix-ld] is
+required.
+
+[nix-ld]: https://github.com/nix-community/nix-ld

example/minimal/BUILD.bazel

@@ -3,4 +3,7 @@ load("@rules_cc//cc:defs.bzl", "cc_binary")
 cc_binary(
     name = "minimal",
     srcs = ["main.cpp"],
+    # This fails since the only registered host toolchain is from
+    # toolchains_llvm which doesn't currently work on NixOS.
+    tags = ["manual"],
 )

example/semihosting/BUILD.bazel

@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ load("@rules_cc//cc:defs.bzl", "cc_binary")
 cc_binary(
     name = "binary",
     srcs = ["main.cpp"],
+    # This fails since the only registered host toolchain is from
+    # toolchains_llvm which doesn't currently work on NixOS.
+    tags = ["manual"],
 )
 
 # `transition_config_binary` must be run with
@@ -14,6 +17,9 @@ transition_config_binary(
     name = "semihosting",
     src = ":binary",
     semihosting = "enabled",
+    # This fails since the only registered host toolchain is from
+    # toolchains_llvm which doesn't currently work on NixOS.
+    tags = ["manual"],
 )
 
 transition_config_binary(

example/unit_test/BUILD.bazel

@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ load("@rules_cc//cc:defs.bzl", "cc_test")
 cc_test(
     name = "test",
     srcs = ["main.cpp"],
+    # This fails since the only registered host toolchain is from
+    # toolchains_llvm which doesn't currently work on NixOS.
+    tags = ["manual"],
 )
 
 transition_config_test(

tools/BUILD.bazel

@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ genrule(
     name = "gen-clang-format",
     outs = ["clang-format.bash"],
     cmd = """
-echo "#!/bin/bash" > $@
+echo "#!/usr/bin/env bash" > $@
 echo "cd \\$$BUILD_WORKSPACE_DIRECTORY" >> $@
 echo "exec bazelisk build \\$$@ //..." >> $@
 """,
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ genrule(
     name = "gen-clang-tidy",
     outs = ["clang-tidy.bash"],
     cmd = """
-echo "#!/bin/bash" > $@
+echo "#!/usr/bin/env bash" > $@
 echo "cd \\$$BUILD_WORKSPACE_DIRECTORY" >> $@
 echo "exec bazelisk build {options} \\$${{@:-//...}}" >> $@
 """.format(

tools/bazel

@@ -18,17 +18,35 @@ bazel_wrapper_hash=$(cat "${bazel_wrapper}"/* | sha1sum | cut -d' ' -f1)
 hashed_out_link="${workspace_root}/.bazel-wrapper/${bazel_wrapper_hash}"
 
 if [[ ! -e "$hashed_out_link" ]]; then
-    rm -rf "${workspace_root}/.bazel-wrapper"
-    store_path=$(
-      nix \
-        --option warn-dirty false \
-        build \
-        --verbose \
-        --out-link "$hashed_out_link" \
-        --print-out-paths \
-        "path:$bazel_wrapper"
-    )
-    echo "caching store path $store_path to $hashed_out_link"
+  rm -rf "${workspace_root}/.bazel-wrapper"
+  store_path=$(
+    nix \
+      --option warn-dirty false \
+      build \
+      --verbose \
+      --out-link "$hashed_out_link" \
+      --print-out-paths \
+      "path:$bazel_wrapper"
+  )
+  echo "cached store path $store_path to $hashed_out_link"
+fi
+
+# NixOS doesn't have /bin/bash so we need to set --shell_executable
+nixos_bazelrc_dir="${workspace_root}/.nixos-autoconfig"
+if [[ ! -e /bin/bash && ! -e "${nixos_bazelrc_dir}/${bazel_wrapper_hash}" ]]; then
+  echo "generating/updating nixos specific bazelrc"
+
+  rm -rf "$nixos_bazelrc_dir"
+  nix \
+    --option warn-dirty false \
+    build \
+    --verbose \
+    --out-link "${nixos_bazelrc_dir}/${bazel_wrapper_hash}" \
+    "path:${bazel_wrapper}#nixos-bazelrc"
+  cat > ${nixos_bazelrc_dir}/bazelrc << EOF
+import %workspace%/.nixos-autoconfig/${bazel_wrapper_hash}
+EOF
+    
 fi
 
 exec "$hashed_out_link/bin/bazel-wrapper" "$@"

tools/bazel-wrapper/flake.nix

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 {
-  description = "flake defining the repo dev shell";
+  description = "flake defining files needed to bootstrap bazelisk";
 
   inputs = {
     nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-25.05";
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
               bash
               bazelisk
               coreutils
+              diffutils
               findutils
               gnugrep
               gnused
@@ -36,8 +37,13 @@
             ++ lib.optionals stdenv.isDarwin [
               darwin.cctools
             ];
+          rc_line = ''
+            common --shell_executable ${pkgs.lib.getExe pkgs.bash}
+          '';
         in
         {
+          nixos-bazelrc = pkgs.writeText "nixos-${system}.bazelrc" "${rc_line}";
+
           default = pkgs.writeShellApplication {
             name = "bazel-wrapper";
             runtimeInputs = tools;