Set type of flake option to string, correctly evaluate it when provided

[b-m-f]

Closes #148

[astro]

The primary use-case for this option was to pass a flake that is self or a flake input, not a string. Can we support both?

[astro]

When testing this with a flakeref string as flake, which is your use-case, I get error: cannot call 'getFlake' on unlocked flake reference 'git+https://gitea.dev/user/nix-config.git', at «none»:0 (use --impure to override)

With --impure I get error: infinite recursion encountered ☹️

[b-m-f]

Thanks for giving it a try.

For the "impurity" I found NixOS/nix#6124 (comment) .

Now for the recursion.

In my setup I currently have 2 gitrepos:

• git+https://my-git/b-m-f/host
• git+https://my-git/b-m-f/dev-microvm

and I can successfully deploy that way - the impurity error happens as well.

Have you maybe tried to reference flake in the same way as self?

Since the usage does not seem clear, maybe a new option could be added? How about remoteRef/remoteFlake?

Edit: Some more context:

Using flake: self with deploy-rs I get

error: attribute 'self' missing

       at /nix/store/sg8d2aslxnyr4krwynnh2aszdrcnz3sq-source/lib/modules.nix:512:28:

          511|         builtins.addErrorContext (context name)
          512|           (args.${name} or config._module.args.${name})
             |                            ^
          513|       ) (lib.functionArgs f);
(use '--show-trace' to show detailed location information)
🚀 ❌ [deploy] [ERROR] Failed to check deployment: Nix checking command resulted in a bad exit code: Some(1)

[b-m-f]

@astro should I close this as 'feature not desired'?

[astro]

I haven't yet taken more time to investigate this myself.

[b-m-f]

@astro Alright. There is absolutely no urgency on my side.
I won't have free time for a while, but maybe I can get back to this with a reducible project at some point.

[SuperSandro2000]

Does https://github.com/NixOS/nix/blob/master/doc/manual/rl-next/getflake-path.md help us resolve this?