From 3a0408e3acf785354d8a9b4074b9d4dbb0a12852 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Robert Hensing <robert@roberthensing.nl>
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2024 12:19:58 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] perSystem: Check that inputs'.<name> is a flake, for better
 error message

The alternative would have been to try and make this not an evaluation error,
but that would cause problems.

Idea: use filterAttrs to construct an attrset "inputFlakes". This would be
bad because it requires that we evaluate all inputs, just to see whether
they're flakes or not.

If Nix were to provide this metadata independently, which it could do
very efficiently, we still ought to wonder what's the purpose of
eliding those attributes. The only ways you'll encounter this
exception in `inputs'.<broken>` is by either
 - making a mistake, in which case the error message is great
 - or traversing all inputs, which nobody should do.

See https://flake.parts/best-practices-for-module-writing#do-not-traverse-inputs

Other idea: return *something empty*. This avoids the strictness
problem above, but still optimizes for the wrong use case.

Ultimately though, attribute transposition should not be needed at all,
but this project is largely dependent on the implicit schema imposed by Nix.
---
 modules/perSystem.nix | 20 ++++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/modules/perSystem.nix b/modules/perSystem.nix
index 851b30a..499858a 100644
--- a/modules/perSystem.nix
+++ b/modules/perSystem.nix
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ let
     mkOption
     types
     ;
+  inherit (lib.strings)
+    escapeNixIdentifier
+    ;
   inherit (flake-parts-lib)
     mkPerSystemType
     ;
@@ -92,8 +95,21 @@ in
       type = mkPerSystemType ({ config, system, ... }: {
         _file = ./perSystem.nix;
         config = {
-          _module.args.inputs' = mapAttrs (k: rootConfig.perInput system) self.inputs;
-          _module.args.self' = rootConfig.perInput system self;
+          _module.args.inputs' =
+            mapAttrs
+              (inputName: input:
+                builtins.addErrorContext "while retrieving system-dependent attributes for input ${escapeNixIdentifier inputName}" (
+                  if input._type or null == "flake"
+                  then rootConfig.perInput system input
+                  else
+                    throw "Trying to retrieve system-dependent attributes for input ${escapeNixIdentifier inputName}, but this input is not a flake. Perhaps flake = false was added to the input declarations by mistake, or you meant to use a different input, or you meant to use plain old inputs, not inputs'."
+                )
+              )
+              self.inputs;
+          _module.args.self' =
+            builtins.addErrorContext "while retrieving system-dependent attributes for a flake's own outputs" (
+              rootConfig.perInput system self
+            );
 
           # Custom error messages
           _module.args.self = throwAliasError' "self";