buildDotnetModule: add support for installing pre-release tools

[gaelj]

Things done

Added an optional allowPreRelease argument to buildDotnetModule that will set the --prerelease flag to the dotnet tool install command.

This is because some useful Nuget packages have a tendency to stay in alpha release, so it's nice to be able to package them regardless.

We could also add the --prerelease tag unconditionally if that would be acceptable.

• Built on platform(s)
  • x86_64-linux
  • aarch64-linux
  • x86_64-darwin
  • aarch64-darwin
• For non-Linux: Is sandboxing enabled in nix.conf? (See Nix manual)
  • sandbox = relaxed
  • sandbox = true
• Tested, as applicable:
  • NixOS test(s) (look inside nixos/tests)
  • and/or package tests
  • or, for functions and "core" functionality, tests in lib/tests or pkgs/test
  • made sure NixOS tests are linked to the relevant packages
• Tested compilation of all packages that depend on this change using nix-shell -p nixpkgs-review --run "nixpkgs-review rev HEAD". Note: all changes have to be committed, also see nixpkgs-review usage
• Tested basic functionality of all binary files (usually in ./result/bin/)
• 25.05 Release Notes (or backporting 24.11 and 25.05 Release notes)
  • (Package updates) Added a release notes entry if the change is major or breaking
  • (Module updates) Added a release notes entry if the change is significant
  • (Module addition) Added a release notes entry if adding a new NixOS module
• Fits CONTRIBUTING.md.

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[corngood]

We could also add the --prerelease tag unconditionally if that would be acceptable.

I can't think of a good reason not to do this in the install. The version is pinned in the derivation.

Would specifying the version (--version ${version}) explicitly avoid the need for --prerelease?

Explicitly allowing prerelease versions could still be relevant for the update script:

# always skip prerelease versions for now
version=$(curl -fsSL "https://api.nuget.org/v3-flatcontainer/$nugetName/index.json" |
    jq -er '.versions | last(.[] | select(match("^[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+$")))')

[corngood]

The fixup commit should be squashed.

[gaelj]

Would specifying the version (--version ${version}) explicitly avoid the need for --prerelease?

No, specifying an alpha version explicitly isn't enough. The pre release flag needs to be there to install a non official version or you get an error.

I'll do some more checks. Just noticed the command errors out if we pass both version and pre release flags...

But I agree we should pass the pinned version to the DotNet tool installation command.

I'll also update the regex in the install script.

[gaelj]

You are absolutely correct, @corngood : replacing --prerelease with --version [...] does the trick.

I modified the regex in install.sh. I tested it by running the curl command in a terminal and it works as expected. Not sure how I could test the whole script though.

All commits are now squashed.

[GaetanLepage]

nixpkgs-review result

Generated using nixpkgs-review.

Command: nixpkgs-review pr 374663

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x86_64-linux

✅ 10 packages built:

• csharp-ls
• csharpier
• csharprepl
• dotnet-ef
• dotnet-repl
• fable
• fantomas
• gitversion
• pbm
• upgrade-assistant

---

aarch64-linux

✅ 10 packages built:

• csharp-ls
• csharpier
• csharprepl
• dotnet-ef
• dotnet-repl
• fable
• fantomas
• gitversion
• pbm
• upgrade-assistant

---

x86_64-darwin

✅ 8 packages built:

• csharp-ls
• csharpier
• csharprepl
• dotnet-ef
• dotnet-repl
• fantomas
• gitversion
• upgrade-assistant

---

aarch64-darwin

✅ 7 packages built:

• csharpier
• csharprepl
• dotnet-ef
• dotnet-repl
• fantomas
• gitversion
• upgrade-assistant

[corngood]

I don't think we want to do this by default. This will cause all the existing packages to update to pre-release automatically.

If we're going to do this it should be gated by something like allowPrerelease, but it may not be worth the trouble. We may not want things doing automatic updates to prerelease versions at all.

[corngood]

I think my suggestion would be to just leave this out for now.