Can't use external repo as vendored_node

[mboes]

🐞 bug report

Affected Rule

The issue is caused by the rule: node_repositories().

Is this a regression?

No

Description

I'd like to use NodeJS from Nixpkgs. Using rules_nixpkgs, I can map the Nixpkgs package for NodeJS to a Bazel external repository. This repository has the following content:

bin/node
bin/npm
...

To use this, I say:

nixpkgs_package(
    name = "nixpkgs_nodejs",
    attribute_path = "nodejs",
    repository = "@nixpkgs",
)

nixpkgs_package(
    name = "nixpkgs_yarn",
    attribute_path = "yarn",
    repository = "@nixpkgs",
)

node_repositories(vendored_node = "@nixpkgs_nodejs", vendored_yarn ="@nixpkgs_yarn")

in my WORKSPACE file. But this doesn't work.

🔬 Minimal Reproduction

Checkout https://github.com/mboes/rules_nodejs/commit/72caa8a90653f5a1d66895bcd20a0de9210f2b29. Then

$ bazel build //...

🔥 Exception or Error

/home/mboes/.cache/bazel/_bazel_mboes/6ebb4a176e70acabad01519e5e923b54/external/nodejs/bin/node: ligne 17: /home/mboes/.cache/bazel/_bazel_mboes/6ebb4a176e70acabad01519e5e923b54/external/nodejs/bin/../../../external/somedir/somedir/bin/node: No such file or directory

Notice how the above is looking for external/somedir/somedir/bin/node when the binary (just an empty file in the repro) is actually at external/somedir/bin/node. I could modify rules_nixpkgs to add a symlink called external/somedir/somedir that points to external/somedir for any somedir external repo it creates, but then I run into bazelbuild/bazel#2927.

🌍 Your Environment

Operating System:

  
Linux
  

Output of bazel version:

  
Build label: 0.20.0- (@non-git)
Build target: bazel-out/k8-opt/bin/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/BazelServer_deploy.jar
Build time: Tue Jan 1 00:00:00 1980 (315532800)
Build timestamp: 315532800
Build timestamp as int: 315532800
  

Rules version (SHA):

  
d554d80c5718c130af6a21a07057c35bb1b3b4ea
  

[dgarzon]

Hi @mboes did you find a way to get this working? I would also like to use the nix provided binaries, but am running into your same issue. Thanks in advanced!

[mboes]

Here's the code we use currently rules_haskell: https://github.com/tweag/rules_haskell/blob/master/WORKSPACE#L246-L297. That code works around this bug in a way that also works around bazelbuild/bazel#2927, using a Nix derivation that wraps the actual Nix derivation for NodeJS.

[dgarzon]

Thank you very much @mboes ! That did the tick for me 👍

[robinp]

Oops! Almost reopened the same issue. Pasting the report, for posterity (which is along the lines of @mboes 's)
When using the vendored_node option of node_repositories, I can't seem to specify a repository which has top-level bin/node layout.

For example, the repository I vendor from is @my_node, inside which the node binary resides at //:bin/node. If I pass vendored_node = "@my_node", the path that rules_nodejs looks for bin/node is ..../my_node/my_node/bin/node (note the duplicate my_node path).

I needed to transform the repository and introduce an additional top directory and an accompanying filegroup, so I can pass vendored_node = "@my_node//:top", which works but is a hack.

Related path construction rules are around https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_nodejs/blob/7e3e6be38e1cf3c6c99d8dc8829377a2beacbb53/internal/node/node_repositories.bzl#L329.

I could solve it, but would be convenient if changing the repo layout would not be needed. Thank you!

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had any activity for 90 days. It will be closed if no further activity occurs in two weeks. Collaborators can add a "cleanup" or "need: discussion" label to keep it open indefinitely. Thanks for your contributions to rules_nodejs!

[github-actions]

This issue was automatically closed because it went two weeks without a reply since it was labeled "Can Close?"

[alexeagle]

dupe of #2019