7ff52821-b7d2-459c-bff8-3f070394a82b

hmm., maybe this should be in my build section after all? what does the deploy section do?

Creating a nixpacks.toml file with libreoffice as a library should be the way to go

nixpacks.toml docs
packages search

Looks like libreoffice's nix library name is just libreoffice

ok. this is in addition to railway.toml yeah

?

Yep!

is there a sample file somewhere i can reference? i'm a little unclear on which phase to put this under

likely the install phase

or just:

[phases.install]
cmds = ['apt-get install libreoffice']

Not apt get install, please read the docs

You just need to include the name of the library

ok i see, so

[phase.install]
  aptPkgs = ['libreoffice']

Yes, that's correct

thank you! giving it a whirl

Add a '…' before libreoffice to include any auto detected packages if you have any issues

it's building… let's see what it does!

🤔 would it show up as a step during build? I don't see it mentioned
```
context: 51c94a4d2ceed7b888b5c73f7d4fe9ff

╔══════════════════════════════ Nixpacks v1.31.0 ══════════════════════════════╗

║ setup │ nodejs18, pnpm-9x ║

║──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────║

║ install │ npm install -g corepack@0.24.1 && corepack enable ║

║ │ pnpm i --frozen-lockfile ║

║──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────║

║ build │ corepack enable && corepack prepare pnpm@8.15.1 --activate && ║

║ │ pnpm install && cd packages && cd common && pnpm build && cd .. ║

║ │ && cd jobs && pnpm build && cd .. && cd ai && pnpm build && cd ║

║ │ .. && if [ "$NODE_ENV" = "development" ]; then echo "Skipping ║

║ │ builds in development mode"; else if [ "$RAILWAY_SERVICE" = ║

║ │ "dashboard" ]; then cd dashboard && pnpm build; elif [ ║

║ │ "$RAILWAY_SERVICE" = "jobs" ]; then echo "jobs package already ║

║ │ built"; elif [ "$RAILWAY_SERVICE" = "api" ]; then cd api && ║

║ │ pnpm build; fi; fi ║

║ │ ║

║──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────║

║ start │ cd packages/$RAILWAY_SERVICE && pnpm start ║

╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝```

That build command is… a lot

Not necessarily, no

claude just suggeste dusing phase.setup instead of phase.install. i'll experiment

the build command is a lot bc… monorepo 😆

the difference between phases is pretty arbitrary. It comes down to "if you need x before y, put it in the phase before"

fair enough!

it turns out that it didn't install. or at least it's not in the places i'd expect. i'll try claude's idea next

aha, now i am getting something

╔══════════════════════════════ Nixpacks v1.31.0 ══════════════════════════════╗

║ setup      │ libreoffice, qpdf                                               

that's with this nixpacks:

[phases.setup]
nixPkgs = ["libreoffice", "qpdf"]

[start]
cmd = "cd packages/$RAILWAY_SERVICE && pnpm start"

Great!

but unfortunately this messes up my start.. suddenly can't find npm. which i don't use. however, that could be the [start] block. gonna remove that from nixpacks.toml since it worked fine before with the start in railway.toml. hopefully this prereq stuff can live in nixpacks and everything else in railway.toml?

Sounds like a reasonable separation to me

🫰

er, 🤞

looks like separation doesn't work. now that there's a nixpacks.toml, it's trying to use this command:

npm install -g corepack@0.24.1 && corepack enable               ║

║            │ pnpm i --frozen-lockfile   

which fails almost immediately

Can you add Node as a provider in your service settings/nixpacks.toml?

trying it

error: undefined variable 'node'
at /app/.nixpacks/nixpkgs-5624e1334b26ddc18da37e132b6fa8e93b481468.nix:19:21:
18| '')
19| libreoffice node qpdf
| ^
20| ];

should I have put Node ? 🙂

my nixpacks.toml has
``` # File: nixpacks.toml

Adding system packages needed for document conversion

[phases.setup]
nixPkgs = ["node", "libreoffice", "qpdf"]
```

or maybe it should be "nodejs" ?

aha! that time it built… testing

sadly.. still can't find the executable. argh

is there an easy way to get inside my container and see where soffice was installed?

i'm trying to use railway shell to get inside the container but i cant seem to connect… any and all tips appreciated

Unfortunately no. Railway does not support ssh-ing into your project

You could echo the path somehow?

oh. i thought maybe railway run locate might work but it seems to just run things on my local

or maybe a way to see that its shell search path might be… maybe it doesn't include /usr/bin somehow (seems unlikely but…)

Railway run effectively just injects the service variables into your local environment. It's not a shell

i was hoping there could be a railway equivalent of docker run -it to poke around. well, i can also add a boatload of likely paths… just could take me a long time to find it.
during the build i saw it did these:

 /nix/store/agx7qlqb4cd6f4mv4ngvcd6p1mjrk7gf-libreoffice-24.2.7.2

  /nix/store/zkb5z6q718n8d1pmvii00w2hspdix4zr-libreoffice-24.2.7.2-wrapped

which makes me think it installed libre ok

It seems like your build process is very specific. Have you considered setting up a Dockerfile rather than relying on nixpacks?

Nixpacks is great for automatically setting up "simple" apps, but Dockerfiles are more reliable for complex apps

i am open to it yeah. i did that on my last railway project. unfortunately, we're launching tomorrow so i don' thave time to switch tonight

Understood

If libreoffice is in your nixpacks.toml it's very likely that it did successfully install

Unfortunately I'm not sure how you could find the location of the exec

i'm trying this build hack

echo "Looking for soffice..." && \
  find / -name soffice 2>/dev/null && \
  echo "Soffice search complete." && \

Here's hoping it works!

in theory if it's on the image we'll find it… lolz. useful info for the next schlub

weird, what's this mean?

/nix/store/7v64r0f3awpkbcr08k4win1lp9d3b1xw-user-environment/bin/soffice
/nix/store/lsgbh1xzdkccng60kpfwqkiy82fq9c6r-5624e1334b26ddc18da37e132b6fa8e93b481468-env/bin/soffice
/nix/store/agx7qlqb4cd6f4mv4ngvcd6p1mjrk7gf-libreoffice-24.2.7.2/lib/libreoffice/program/soffice
/nix/store/zkb5z6q718n8d1pmvii00w2hspdix4zr-libreoffice-24.2.7.2-wrapped/lib/libreoffice/program/soffice
/nix/store/zkb5z6q718n8d1pmvii00w2hspdix4zr-libreoffice-24.2.7.2-wrapped/bin/soffice

is that where you'd expect it?

No clue, honestly. Give it a shot

holy crap, it works. well, that was a giant hack. but… my code does a seaerch through /nix/store to find soffice so it can run it. welp… after this launch i'm gonna switch to dockerfiles that i can understand better. thanks for your help today. as usual, i still love working with Railway

Very glad you got it working! Marking this thread as solved

Good luck on the launch tomorrow!

!s