From 96c5a1f75766cc6e173c4aa5cb536dc63b8fd795 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Stefan Frijters <sfrijters@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2026 11:02:35 +0200
Subject: [PATCH 1/3] build-support/vm: fix fillDiskWithDebs

After __structuredAttrs was enabled in runInLinuxVM, the structure
of 'debs' matters.

The current implementation uses some IFS tricks so we just flatten into a string.
Future improvements could include treating debs as a list in a more
structured way.
---
 pkgs/build-support/vm/default.nix | 8 +++++---
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/vm/default.nix b/pkgs/build-support/vm/default.nix
index 68ec5189177e..f74fef9f3b63 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/vm/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/vm/default.nix
@@ -730,7 +730,9 @@ let
             memSize
             ;
 
-          debs = (lib.intersperse "|" debs);
+          # Flatten this into string explicitly to allow IFS tricks below to work,
+          # and support structuredAttrs
+          debsInterspersed = toString (lib.intersperse "|" debs);
 
           preVM = createEmptyImage { inherit size fullName; };
 
@@ -749,7 +751,7 @@ let
             # (which have lots of circular dependencies) from barfing.
             echo "unpacking Debs..."
 
-            for deb in $debs; do
+            for deb in $debsInterspersed; do
               if test "$deb" != "|"; then
                 echo "$deb..."
                 dpkg-deb --extract "$deb" /mnt
@@ -778,7 +780,7 @@ let
 
             oldIFS="$IFS"
             IFS="|"
-            for component in $debs; do
+            for component in $debsInterspersed; do
               IFS="$oldIFS"
               echo
               echo ">>> INSTALLING COMPONENT: $component"

From 99872c2d5b8d5e3fc6bc7511fc5b415d8f412014 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Stefan Frijters <sfrijters@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2026 12:01:00 +0200
Subject: [PATCH 2/3] build-support/vm: fix fillDiskWithRPMs

With __structuredAttrs enabled, 'rpms' is a bash array.
---
 pkgs/build-support/vm/default.nix | 4 ++--
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/vm/default.nix b/pkgs/build-support/vm/default.nix
index f74fef9f3b63..764ce8890209 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/vm/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/vm/default.nix
@@ -568,7 +568,7 @@ let
 
           echo "unpacking RPMs..."
           set +o pipefail
-          for i in $rpms; do
+          for i in "''${rpms[@]}"; do
               echo "$i..."
               ${rpm}/bin/rpm2cpio "$i" | chroot /mnt ${cpio}/bin/cpio -i --make-directories --unconditional
           done
@@ -585,7 +585,7 @@ let
 
           echo "installing RPMs..."
           PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin $chroot /mnt \
-            rpm -iv --nosignature ${lib.optionalString (!runScripts) "--noscripts"} $rpms
+            rpm -iv --nosignature ${lib.optionalString (!runScripts) "--noscripts"} "''${rpms[@]}"
 
           echo "running post-install script..."
           eval "$postInstall"

From 85bdfb8ba6f98c8f30ebe57a70081c380afdf336 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Stefan Frijters <sfrijters@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:27:06 +0200
Subject: [PATCH 3/3] build-support/vm: refactor IFS tricks in fillDiskWithDebs

---
 pkgs/build-support/vm/default.nix | 18 ++++++------------
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/pkgs/build-support/vm/default.nix b/pkgs/build-support/vm/default.nix
index 764ce8890209..53cfe9317e28 100644
--- a/pkgs/build-support/vm/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/build-support/vm/default.nix
@@ -730,9 +730,8 @@ let
             memSize
             ;
 
-          # Flatten this into string explicitly to allow IFS tricks below to work,
-          # and support structuredAttrs
-          debsInterspersed = toString (lib.intersperse "|" debs);
+          debsFlat = lib.flatten debs;
+          debsGrouped = debs;
 
           preVM = createEmptyImage { inherit size fullName; };
 
@@ -751,11 +750,9 @@ let
             # (which have lots of circular dependencies) from barfing.
             echo "unpacking Debs..."
 
-            for deb in $debsInterspersed; do
-              if test "$deb" != "|"; then
-                echo "$deb..."
-                dpkg-deb --extract "$deb" /mnt
-              fi
+            for deb in "''${debsFlat[@]}"; do
+              echo "$deb..."
+              dpkg-deb --extract "$deb" /mnt
             done
 
             # Make the Nix store available in /mnt, because that's where the .debs live.
@@ -778,10 +775,7 @@ let
 
             export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
 
-            oldIFS="$IFS"
-            IFS="|"
-            for component in $debsInterspersed; do
-              IFS="$oldIFS"
+            for component in "''${debsGrouped[@]}"; do
               echo
               echo ">>> INSTALLING COMPONENT: $component"
               debs=