In reply to @zhaofeng:zhaofeng.li
Import From Derivation is when you do import (some derivation) to use the results of a derivation during evaluation, meaning that the normally platform-agnostic evaluation process now requires building a derivation which is platform-specific. In order to build foreign derivations for IFD using configured builders, I normally pass --options builders to nix-instantiate.

In reply to @zhaofeng:zhaofeng.li
Yes indeed, if the user requests this check by setting deployment.replaceUnknownProfiles = false; (it defaults to true) then it expects the previous profile to be in the deployer's store.

In reply to @winterqt:nixos.dev
i know what IFD is - but i'm confused on where IFDs are used in Colmena

In reply to @winterqt:nixos.dev
i know what IFD is - but i'm confused on where IFDs are used in Colmena

In reply to @grw00:matrix.org
anyway i think in the repo i refer to it's not so simple as colmena apply - error: Flake must define outputs.colmena

In reply to @schnecfk:ruhr-uni-bochum.de
Do you want to use a "shim" to populate outputs.colmena from outputs.nixosConfigurations?

iirc Buckley changed the approach for the shim, while I found the following solution.
In the flake.nix, I populate colmena from nixosConfigurations.

      colmena = {
        meta = {
          description = "My personal machines";
          nixpkgs = import nixpkgs {
            system = "x86_64-linux";
            overlays = [ nur.overlay ];
          };
        };

      } // builtins.mapAttrs (name: value: {
        nixpkgs.system = value.config.nixpkgs.system;
        imports = value._module.args.modules;
      }) (self.nixosConfigurations);

But to have the deployment options available (and not conflicting with colmena), I had to add:

        extraModules = [ colmena.nixosModules.deploymentOptions ];

in the nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem call

iirc Buckley changed the approach for the shim, while I found the following solution.
In the flake.nix, I populate colmena from nixosConfigurations.

      colmena = {
        meta = {
          description = "My personal machines";
          nixpkgs = import nixpkgs {
            system = "x86_64-linux";
            overlays = [ nur.overlay ];
          };
        };

      } // builtins.mapAttrs (name: value: {
        nixpkgs.system = value.config.nixpkgs.system;
        imports = value._module.args.modules;
      }) (self.nixosConfigurations);

But to have the deployment options available (and not conflicting with colmena), I had to add this (note that you'd typically use the argument modules):

        extraModules = [ colmena.nixosModules.deploymentOptions ];

in the nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem call

Nix itself accepts the option --no-substitute, while colmena's similar option is called --no-substitutes. This is unnecessarily confusing, and renaming the option would resolve this.