I've tested all the executable files in result/bin, and there are script files there that depend on python and perl using /usr/bin/env. I'm not sure if that's a problem or not, but it is the same situation as before this patch.

This is fine for optional and almost useless programs, otherwise just add python or perl to the nativeBuildInputs and the default fixup phase will substitute them into scripts. If you don't need to run those scripts, we could merge this as is.

You can also add yourself to maintainers to review changes to this package in the future (when we resume notifying maintainers).

Okay, so I've added perl and python2 to nativeBuildInputs, and that actually fixes all of the included utility scripts except for afpstats.py, which does not work because it requires the python library for dbus. There was also a travis build failure before my latest commit that I'm not entirely sure about yet.

In case it wasn't obvious though this is my first nixpkgs PR, and I feel like I'm a bit out of my depth. I'm not sure exactly how to fix afpstats.py, I know that I need to add a runtime dependency on python2Packages.dbus... somehow, but I wasn't able to figure it out. I'm also not sure whether I added the correct version of python to nativeBuildInputs, I mean the scripts work, but should it have been python27 instead of python2?

I'm not sure exactly how to fix afpstats.py, I know that I need to add a runtime dependency on python2Packages.dbus... somehow, but I wasn't able to figure it out.

Packages built with buildPythonPackage automatically add all their python build inputs into .py programs (by patching them). This is not such a package, and corresponding action is generally achieved by:

{
  # Import wrapPythonPrograms function.
  nativeBuildInputs = [ pythonPackages.wrapPython ];
  # Export pythonPath.
  pythonPath = with pythonPackages; [ mpd pygtk dbus-python notify mutagen ];
  # Wrap all python programs in $out/bin.
  postInstall = "wrapPythonPrograms";
}

Here I've chosen to be more specific, and instead of wrapping all python programs I only add the path to dbus into afpstats:

{
  postInstall = ''
    buildPythonPath ${python.pkgs.dbus-python}
    patchPythonScript $out/bin/afpstats
  '';
}

I'm also not sure whether I added the correct version of python to nativeBuildInputs, I mean the scripts work, but should it have been python27 instead of python2?

Usually we say just python which defaults to python27, and if we need another version it is specified in the callPackage argument in all-packages.nix.

Thank you a lot for all the help and explanation, it all seems pretty reasonable and clear.

I feel like instead of helping all I did was trigger the people who actually know what they're doing to come fix things for me, but I appreciate it all the same.

I'm pretty sure I'm actually going to stick with nixos for real this time, so hopefully I'll get better at this as time goes on :)

You are welcome!