Error when following learn_powerpipe instructions

[jheidbrink]

Powerpipe version (powerpipe -v)
v0.4.2

To reproduce

• Follow the instructions from https://powerpipe.io/docs#pre-requisites
  • instead of the installer scripts, I installed steampipe and powerpipe via the Nix package manager
  • the powerpipe query run "select title from aws_account" command works
• Follow the instructions from https://powerpipe.io/docs#visualize-cloud-infrastructure
  • When running powerpipe server, it prints Error: during development, dashboard assets must be present when running powerpipe dashboard and exits.

[jheidbrink]

Note that replacing powerpipe with steampipe in the powerpipe mod ... commands, and running steampipe dashboard instead of powerpipe server works

[pskrbasu]

@jheidbrink We don't maintain the steampipe and powerpipe Nix packages. I suggest you install Powerpipe using brew(mac) or the installer(linux & wsl) and see if you still get the same error while running powerpipe server. Let me know how It goes.

Meanwhile, I'll try to install it from Nix and see if I can replicate your error.

Thanks

[jheidbrink]

When using the sh $(curl ...) way of installing Steampipe and Powerpipe, powerpipe server works. It looks like this is specific to the Nix package.

[jheidbrink]

I noticed that on Debian with the sh "$(curl ...) installation, the powerpipe server command creates and populates the ~/.powerpipe/dashboard/assets folder. On NixOS, the folder is created but not populated. If I copy the files from Debian to NixOS, powerpipe server runs on NixOS as well.

[jheidbrink]

I took a look at the source code and I believe one important difference between the Nix build and the official build is that the official build process sets the builtBy variable to "goreleaser" whereas the Nix build leaves the default value of "local".

This leads to different behaviour in

powerpipe/internal/dashboardassets/ensure.go

Lines 40 to 45 in 701d70f

	if localcmdconfig.IsLocal() {
	if err := verifyAssetsExist(ctx); err != nil {
	return sperr.New("during development, dashboard assets must be present when running powerpipe dashboard")
	}
	return nil
	}

The official build then goes on to extract an assets.tar.gz to ~/.powerpipe/dashboard/assets:

powerpipe/internal/dashboardassets/ensure.go

Lines 53 to 61 in 701d70f

	tarGz, err := staticFS.Open(embeddedAssetArchiveName)
	if err != nil {
	return sperr.WrapWithMessage(err, "could not open embedded dashboard assets archive")
	}
	defer tarGz.Close()
	err = extractTarGz(ctx, tarGz, reportAssetsPath)
	if err != nil {
	return sperr.WrapWithMessage(err, "could not extract embedded dashboard assets archive")

I haven't figured out in which folder it is looking for assets.tar.gz though and how the file is created in the first place, maybe someone can shed some light on this.

[pskrbasu]

@jheidbrink

I haven't figured out in which folder it is looking for assets.tar.gz though and how the file is created in the first place, maybe someone can shed some light on this.

The assets are built in this step in the Release workflow.