devbox generate direnv does not respect --config

[itsdalmo]

What happened?

While trying to find a solution for #2457 I noticed that the devbox generate direnv command takes a --config flag which should contain a directory with a devbox.json, however this does not appear to be working.

Steps to reproduce

$ devbox generate direnv --config ./tools/devbox/ci
$ cat .envrc
<...>
 eval "$(devbox generate direnv --print-envrc)"
<...>

And if I manually add the --config flag, the output does not reflect it:

$ devbox generate direnv --print-envrc --config ./tools/devbox/ci
use_devbox() {
 watch_file devbox.json devbox.lock
 eval "$(devbox shellenv --init-hook --install --no-refresh-alias)"
}
use devbox

i.e. the watch_file should point to ./tools/devbox/ci/devbox.json and ./tools/devbox/ci/devbox.lock. Also the devbox shellenv needs to include the --config flag in order to set up the correct environment (devbox shellenv appears to support he --config flag as expected).

Command

No response

devbox.json

{
 "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jetify-com/devbox/0.11.1/.schema/devbox.schema.json",
 "include": [
 "path:../baseline"
 ]
}

PS: The problem is not affected by the content of the devbox.json, but I've included it anyhow.

Devbox version

0.13.6

Nix version

nix (Nix) 2.24.9

What system does this bug occur on?

macOS (Apple Silicon)

Debug logs

Not relevant (there is no crash)

[pstephan-geico-external]

I've run into the same issue and have some thoughts. It seems that the '--config' parameter is being misused considering that the help for the param indicates it is used to specify the location of the config file, but for devbox generate direnv it is used to specify the location where the .envrc file will be created. If the desire is to have the .envrc in one location and the config file in another, there doesn't appear to be any way to accomplish this currently. It would be possible to change to the directory where the .envrc is desired prior to executing the command, but even then, as @itsdalmo describes, specifying --config does not update the contents of the .envrc to reflect the true location of the config file.

I see two options (but am curious what options others see):

1. Modify the operation of the --config <dir> parameter for this command so that it does NOT impact the location of the .envrc (which would be placed in the current directory), but would pass the config location on to the --print-envrc flag so that its output would be correct. Specifically, the watch_file command would include the path: dev/devbox.json and dev/devbox.lock. Additionally, the eval command would include --config <dir>. This seems like it would accomplish the desired goal, but might have the drawback of being a breaking change for many users. It would also require that the command be run from the desired location of the .envrc file.

2. Add another param to devbox generate direnv which would be used to specify the location of the .envrc file. Perhaps something like --target or --envrc-dir. This would eliminate what I perceive as misuse of the --config parameter and would support a command such as devbox generate direnv --envrc-dir <dir1> --config <dir2>, which would allow the user to create a .envrc in one location and have it reference a config file in another. It would also not be a breaking change for other users (assuming that passing the --config location on to the output of the --print-envrc would ONLY happen when --envrc-dir is specified).