Change:
<del> source $stdenv/setup mkdir -p $out/etc set -f sources_=($sources) targets_=($targets) modes_=($modes) users_=($users) groups_=($groups) set +f for ((i = 0; i < ${#targets_[@]}; i++)); do source="${sources_[$i]}" target="${targets_[$i]}" if [[ "$source" =~ '*' ]]; then # If the source name contains '*', perform globbing. mkdir -p $out/etc/$target for fn in $source; do ln -s "$fn" $out/etc/$target/ done else mkdir -p $out/etc/$(dirname $target) if ! [ -e $out/etc/$target ]; then ln -s $source $out/etc/$target else echo "duplicate entry $target -> $source" if test "$(readlink $out/etc/$target)" != "$source"; then echo "mismatched duplicate entry $(readlink $out/etc/$target) <-> $source" exit 1 fi fi if test "${modes_[$i]}" != symlink; then echo "${modes_[$i]}"  > $out/etc/$target.mode echo "${users_[$i]}"  > $out/etc/$target.uid echo "${groups_[$i]}" > $out/etc/$target.gid fi fi done </del>

Discussion:
I just wanted networkmanager to know my VPN configuration declaratively. I did this with the following expression: "ETH-VPN" = { source = ./systemConfigFiles/networkManager/ETHZ-VPN; target = "NetworkManager/system-connections/ETHZ VPN"; }; with this configuration I got nixos to crash and to create a non bootable generation when I rebuilded and switched (sudo nixos-rebuild --upgrade switch"), the switch (almost certainly) was completed, however I immediately droped into a login prompt (I guess X just died). Logging in is not possible, as the keyboard doesn't work (ctr+alt+sysrq + reisub) still works when rebooting, I can choose the new generation. Doing that I, I get a lot of errormessages (see attached image). ! My Guess: These errors relate to the fact that several files in /etc are broken. When I remove the space in ETHZ VPN , everything works fine The NetworkManager/system-connections/ directory already existed, there was even a different vpn in it. There was no previous VPN with that name and also no file named NetworkManager/system-connections/ETHZ VPN existed. I tried to create a minimal bug report by replacing these highly custom bug to a more generic one like this: "test" = { source = ./foo; target = "NetworkManager/spaced filename"; }; For some reason this doesn't create the same behaviour. It still generates a corrupted generation and switches into it, but it doesn't log me out. Instead various config files in /etc seem to be broken; E.g. when i do sudo -s I get /etc/sudoers: syntax error near line 1: (and the same error for many other lines) Please run and paste the results.

these paths will be fetched (0.75 MiB download, 4.33 MiB unpacked): /nix/store/5hszvi0hczzh25mmsz5rkb9qa758c10p-bash-4.4-p12-dev /nix/store/9bkj2zjc8jdzwgwdwb5d890hrhrk9d3g-bash-4.4-p12-dev /nix/store/bkx6rzqciq0sdn1z5liard33ffvv1n3s-bash-4.4-p12-doc /nix/store/d5ki460cwwydf93f31is95sqpcf334r4-bash-4.4-p12-info /nix/store/f1rp3j71id6g6zcmiafrksmw1cgydl9k-bash-4.4-p12-doc /nix/store/l3nz0167a4xhb78ldcjns5p4dwvlm1cw-stdenv copying path '/nix/store/bkx6rzqciq0sdn1z5liard33ffvv1n3s-bash-4.4-p12-doc' from ''... copying path '/nix/store/f1rp3j71id6g6zcmiafrksmw1cgydl9k-bash-4.4-p12-doc' from ''... copying path '/nix/store/d5ki460cwwydf93f31is95sqpcf334r4-bash-4.4-p12-info' from ''... copying path '/nix/store/5hszvi0hczzh25mmsz5rkb9qa758c10p-bash-4.4-p12-dev' from ''... copying path '/nix/store/9bkj2zjc8jdzwgwdwb5d890hrhrk9d3g-bash-4.4-p12-dev' from ''... copying path '/nix/store/l3nz0167a4xhb78ldcjns5p4dwvlm1cw-stdenv' from ''... system: host os: multi-user?: sandbox: version: channels(root): nixpkgs:
Thank you for your contributions.

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