Hello, I hope you're all doing well, and that its okay that I ask a question regarding nixos.

https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/nixos-24.11/nixos/lib/testing/driver.nix#L18

vms = map (m: m.system.build.vm) (lib.attrValues config.nodes);

https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/nixos-24.11/nixos/modules/virtualisation/build-vm.nix

system.build.vm = lib.mkDefault config.virtualisation.vmVariant.system.build.vm;

https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/nixos-24.11/nixos/modules/virtualisation/qemu-vm.nix#L1332-L1342

system.build.vm = hostPkgs.runCommand "nixos-vm" ...

can anyone help me understand why when i use runTest/evalTest, and it uses system.build.vm, without applying the extendModules [in build-vm.nix], but when i use nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem, it does apply extendModules [in build-vm.nix]

testers.runNixOSTest {
    name = "boot-${k}";
    node.pkgsReadOnly = false;
    nodes.machine.imports = v.modules ++ [
      { virtualisation.vmVariant.services.openssh.enable = lib.mkForce true; }
    ];
    node.specialArgs = prelude.mkSpecialArgs v;
    testScript =
      ''
        machine.start()
        machine.wait_for_unit("default.target")
        machine.wait_for_unit("sshd.service")
      '';
  })

My objective goal, (which may be silly, i'm happy for input aswell),
is that this should include openssh as part of the test env but not the production env.

Thank you for your time.

Lunarix: sry don't see notifications in chat rooms as this would render the app unusable with all the chat rooms. ping me directly next time plz and i will be happy to help.

please let me reiterate on what you want: you want SSH only in test environments, does that mean in the interactive mode of the test driver, but not in the sandboxed tests? or do you want no ssh in tests at all?