nix-darwin-activation.nix

system.activationScripts.applications.text = let
  env = pkgs.buildEnv {
    name = "system-applications";
    paths = config.environment.systemPackages;
    pathsToLink = "/Applications";
  };
in
  pkgs.lib.mkForce ''
  # Set up applications.
  echo "setting up /Applications..." >&2
  rm -rf /Applications/Nix\ Apps
  mkdir -p /Applications/Nix\ Apps
  find ${env}/Applications -maxdepth 1 -type l -exec readlink '{}' + |
  while read -r src; do
    app_name=$(basename "$src")
    echo "copying $src" >&2
    ${pkgs.mkalias}/bin/mkalias "$src" "/Applications/Nix Apps/$app_name"
  done
      '';

for nix-unstable and your future viewers of your channel 25.05 and later will deprecated this line:

(pkgs.nerdfonts.override { fonts = [ "JetBrainsMono" ]; })

and it will go with this:

pkgs.nerd-fonts.jetbrains-mono

one the the downsides of nix is that reproducibility comes at the price if you want to get the benefits of better and cleaner nix language and have nix flake update command work.

I used the activation script in my config, but alacritty is still not visible in spotlight :/

I used the activation script in my config, but alacritty is still not visible in spotlight :/

it does have to be an environment system package for it to be read.

this script works for kitty for example, but doesn't for wezterm because i have it as a home manager module. the creature comfort with spotlight isn't great because aliases are a little lower than a websearch. i use raycast as a spotlight replacement through homebrew.

but what is great about this script is that it gives you an opening to adapt it to add home manager aliases, just replace /Applications/Nix\ Apps to ~/Applications/Home\ Manager (i'm not a fan of bash).

Just a suggestion, I've used this utility on my flake.nix and it worked like a charm. No need to define an activation script
https://github.com/hraban/mac-app-util
Credits to the developer @hraban

Thanks for the video tutorial, it really helped.

+1 ☝️ to using @hraban https://github.com/hraban/mac-app-util

Worked like a charm

++1 ☝🏽using https://github.com/hraban/mac-app-util

Worked perfectly and was super easy to add to my config file.

++1 ☝🏽using https://github.com/hraban/mac-app-util

Worked perfectly and was super easy to add to my config file.

Do you mind sharing your flake.nix with mac-app-util? I tried it, and it doesn't work for me.

@tylercritchlow Sure! I've uploaded a copy here: https://gist.github.com/frarredondo/192930a454c992f306143bfc4eefc948

I will say that after posting my comment above i very quickly learned that very few packages were actually available for aarch64-darwin and found that i needed to install everything via homebrew so i didn't see the point in using nix at least on apple silicon atm and uninstalled it and went back to using homebrew for package management.

@ricardogaspar2 Great suggestion, works like a charm 🤝

@frarredondo Thanks for the snippet.

when I try to run the flake, I get this warning:

warning: /Applications/Nix Apps is not owned by nix-darwin, skipping App linking...

Any idea how to fix this?

@Kapi2910 - You could try to remove (or rename) the old directory, then re-run your rebuild so nix-darwin can create its symlink.

mac-app-util ... This is the way. I had to delete my existing /Applications/Nix Apps and re-run my darwin-rebuild command for the magic to happen.

@mikewebbtech That worked. Thank you so much.

{
description = "Example nix-darwin system flake";

inputs = {
nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-unstable";
nix-darwin.url = "github:nix-darwin/nix-darwin/master";
nix-darwin.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
};

outputs = inputs@{ self, nixpkgs, nix-darwin, ... }:
let
system = "aarch64-darwin";

  configuration = { config, pkgs, ... }:

    let
      env = pkgs.buildEnv {
        name = "system-applications";
        paths = config.environment.systemPackages;
        pathsToLink = "/Applications";
      };
    in {
      environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
        neovim
      ];

      system.activationScripts.applications.text = pkgs.lib.mkForce ''
        echo "setting up /Applications..." >&2
        rm -rf /Applications/Nix\ Apps
        mkdir -p /Applications/Nix\ Apps
        find ${env}/Applications -maxdepth 1 -type l -exec readlink '{}' + |
        while read -r src; do
          app_name=$(basename "$src")
          echo "copying $src" >&2
          ${pkgs.mkalias}/bin/mkalias "$src" "/Applications/Nix Apps/$app_name"
        done
      '';

      nix.settings.experimental-features = "nix-command flakes";

      system.configurationRevision = self.rev or self.dirtyRev or null;
      system.stateVersion = 6;
      nixpkgs.hostPlatform = system;
    };
in {
  darwinConfigurations."mini" = nix-darwin.lib.darwinSystem {
    inherit system;
    modules = [ configuration ];
  };
};

}

This is how I fixed it :)

for the latest nix version the function pkgs.buildEnv expects pathsToLink to be a list (like ["/A"]).

pathsToLink = ["/Applications"];

For the latest nix version you should wrap "/Applications" with [ ] in order to work and I think you should add system.applications.enable = true;. after system.activationScripts.applications.text = let , so Nix-darwin can manage macOS applications correctly.