Cannot import modules in `.nimble` during `nimble install`

[madonuko]

nimble install nimsutils fails with the following error:

Downloading https://github.com/FyraLabs/nimsutils using git
   Warning: The package has no tagged releases, downloading HEAD instead.
  Verifying dependencies for nimsutils@0.1.0
 Installing nimsutils@0.1.0
       Tip: 3 messages have been suppressed, use --verbose to show them.
nimble.nim(399)          packageExists

    Error:  The package inside "/home/mado/.nimble/pkgs2/nimsutils-0.1.0-3d97d4dd06c39f7943ddb0b1dd28b05136077e63" is invalid.
  Details:  Could not read package info file in /home/mado/.nimble/pkgs2/nimsutils-0.1.0-3d97d4dd06c39f7943ddb0b1dd28b05136077e63/nimsutils.nimble;
        ...   Reading as ini file failed with: 
        ...     Invalid section: .
        ...   Evaluating as NimScript file failed with: 
        ...     /home/mado/.nimble/pkgs2/nimsutils-0.1.0-3d97d4dd06c39f7943ddb0b1dd28b05136077e63/nimsutils.nimble(1, 11) Error: cannot open file: src/nimsutils
        ... printPkgInfo() failed.

However, if you run nimble inside the repository directly, it works absolutely fine.

Since I can't find any docs saying you aren't allowed to import things in the .nimble file, I feel like this should be a bug from nimble install.

[xTrayambak]

The Nimble manifest for that package seems to be completely invalid. Running nimble install on it with Nimble 0.16.2 results in an error in both the cases.

@ringabout This is not reproducible.

[madonuko]

Have you tried running nimble tasks?

[xTrayambak]

It does seem to parse it with no issues, but it cannot evaluate it.

[madonuko]

If it can parse it, and if running nimble mytask even works, then I mean… supposedly it can evaluate it?

[xTrayambak]

No, I mean "interpretation" when I say "evaluation". It cannot execute that.

[madonuko]

Sorry for my ignorance, but there a particular reason why nimble install can't import the file but in other situations you can?
The xtask thing clearly works (nimble mytask runs fine, nimble tasks can find it too, etc), I feel like the import system is broken particularly in nimble install only.

[daylinmorgan]

here a particular reason why nimble install can't import the file but in other situations you can?

Yes, this is a combination of missing import paths and nimble install behavior.
When nimble installs a package it only copies over the srcDir so the on-disk representation in the .nimble/pkgs2 directory is like this:

nimsutils-0.1.0-e22ac7bf6b80f9650b3a2a0eb5871186c52e7a27
├── htmldocs
│   └── nimdoc.out.css
├── basedefs.nim
├── btrfmt.nim
├── common_imports.nim
├── exec.nim
├── nimblemeta.json
├── nimsutils.nim
├── nimsutils.nimble
├── time.nim
└── xtask.nim

Meaning that there is now no module at ./src/nimsutils.nim.

A possible workaround is you doing some conditional import like this in your nimble file:

when not (compiles do: import src/nimsutils):
  import ./nimsutils
else:
  import src/nimsutils

[madonuko]

That unfortunately doesn't work (probably because Nim VM just fails on errors from compiles do:)

Update: by using:

when (compiles do: import ./nimsutils):
  import ./nimsutils
else:
  import src/nimsutils

we force the VM to check for ./nimsutils first, so there is no failure path during nimble install. This seems to work now.

[daylinmorgan]

I would make sure to remove any versions of nimsutils from ~/.nimble first.

This works fine for me:

nimble install https://github.com/daylinmorgan/nimsutils/

What is the error?
What version of nim and nimble are you using?

[madonuko]

Using latest devel (choosenim)

I have no idea why but somehow nimble install https://github.com/daylinmorgan/nimsutils/ also works (probably some random nimble caching issues)

Maybe it's not a bad idea to document this behaviour somewhere?

[daylinmorgan]

I have no idea why but somehow nimble install https://github.com/daylinmorgan/nimsutils/ also works (probably some random nimble caching issues)

Ya probably,

TBF I think the original error message indicates the problem.

But it may be good to add info to the nimble-guide about how packages are actually installed and how that relates to scrDir.