treewide: remove redundant stylix.image escaping and string coercion

[trueNAHO]

commit 3f6651a26e0127654e6b24a3616239e2eaaf392b
Author: NAHO
Date:   2026-01-09 19:39:44 +0100

    stylix/palette: use derivation arguments instead of string interpolation

    Co-authored-by: Matt Sturgeon

 stylix/palette.nix | 10 ++++------
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

commit ca1bc329e91039435450d19c0e31655c1efd3f0f
Author: NAHO
Date:   2026-01-08 20:55:49 +0100

    stylix/palette: coerce derivations to store paths

    Coerce derivations to store paths to ensure non-null values are
    stringified store paths with valid string contexts.

    Fixes: 838df8b8ad7d ("stylix: improve `stylix.image` type (#1414)")

    Co-authored-by: Matt Sturgeon

 stylix/palette.nix | 4 +---
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 3 deletions(-)

commit 61c9f4dd1435e0723fe675d44459a88b9203418d
Author: NAHO
Date:   2026-01-08 21:18:36 +0100

    treewide: remove redundant stylix.image escaping and string coercion

    Remove redundant shell escaping and string coercion as stylix.image is
    guaranteed to be a stringified store path with a valid string context
    and no special characters.

    Fixes: 3499e3ec704b ("treewide: properly quote stylix.image when used as a shell argument")

 modules/hyprlock/hm.nix  | 4 +---
 modules/hyprpaper/hm.nix | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

---

• I certify that I have the right to submit this contribution under the MIT license
• Commit messages adhere to Stylix commit conventions
• Theming changes adhere to the Stylix style guide
• Changes have been tested locally
• Changes have been tested in testbeds
• Each commit in this PR is suitable for backport to the current stable branch

[0xda157]

cc @MattSturgeon

[MattSturgeon]

Initial review from my phone, so hard to test or view full context.

[MrSom3body]

hyprlock works :)

[MattSturgeon]

Otherwise LGTM

[MrSom3body]

LGTM hyprlock still works

[stylix-automation]

Backport failed for release-25.11, because it was unable to cherry-pick the commit(s).

Please cherry-pick the changes locally and resolve any conflicts.

git fetch origin release-25.11
git worktree add -d .worktree/backport-2134-to-release-25.11 origin/release-25.11
cd .worktree/backport-2134-to-release-25.11
git switch --create backport-2134-to-release-25.11
git cherry-pick -x 3f6651a26e0127654e6b24a3616239e2eaaf392b ca1bc329e91039435450d19c0e31655c1efd3f0f 61c9f4dd1435e0723fe675d44459a88b9203418d

[mattkang]

I think this commit may have broken something for me. Now getting:

error: A definition for option `home-manager.users.user.stylix.image' is not of type `null or (path in the Nix store or absolute path convertible to it)'

[trueNAHO]

I think this commit may have broken something for me. Now getting:

error: A definition for option `home-manager.users.user.stylix.image' is not of type `null or (path in the Nix store or absolute path convertible to it)'

What is your stylix.image declaration? Currently, we only test fetchurl derivations:

stylix/stylix/testbed/images.nix

Lines 3 to 26 in 590e5c6

	dark = fetchurl {
	name = "mountains.jpg";
	url = "https://unsplash.com/photos/ZqLeQDjY6fY/download?ixid=M3wxMjA3fDB8MXxhbGx8fHx8fHx8fHwxNzE2MzY1NDY4fA&force=true";
	hash = "sha256-Dm/0nKiTFOzNtSiARnVg7zM0J1o+EuIdUQ3OAuasM58=";
	};
	light =
	let
	image = fetchurl {
	name = "three-bicycles.jpg";
	url = "https://unsplash.com/photos/hwLAI5lRhdM/download?ixid=M3wxMjA3fDB8MXxhbGx8fHx8fHx8fHwxNzE2MzYxNDcwfA&force=true";
	hash = "sha256-S0MumuBGJulUekoGI2oZfUa/50Jw0ZzkqDDu1nRkFUA=";
	};
	# Create a path containing a space to test that `stylix.image` is
	# correctly quoted when used as a shell argument. We have to use a
	# directory as the parent because derivation names themselves cannot
	# contain spaces.
	directory = runCommandLocal "three-bicycles" { } ''
	mkdir "$out"
	cp ${image} "$out/three bicycles.jpg"
	'';
	in
	"${directory}/three bicycles.jpg";

[mattkang]

@trueNAHO Using a local image in home folder

stylix.image = "${config.users.users.user.home}/Pictures/wallpaper.png";

Is there a reason why pathInStore is being used? I was not able to find good documentation on this. The best I found was here

[MattSturgeon]

patgInStore is used because the option type is converting paths out-of-store into stable dependencies, by copying them to the nix store. It correctly reflects the intended type.

In your case, you're defining a path-like string, not an actual path that can be copied to store.

For most users, referencing a path outside of your config via a string would be a subtle bug, but the option type could be relaxed to accommodate these (non-path, non-drv) path-like strings and assume they are already present in the resulting system, without creating a proper dependency on the file.

[MattSturgeon]

To preserve the original behaviour, coercedTo path (p: "${p}") path could be used, but the type's description ought to be customised in this case to properly convey "any absolute path, but if convertible to a store-path this is done automatically".

(
  coercedTo path (p: "${p}") path
  // {
    description = path.description + ", copied to store if possible";
  }
)

[trueNAHO]

Using a local image in home folder

stylix.image = "${config.users.users.user.home}/Pictures/wallpaper.png";

Is there a reason why pathInStore is being used?

As mentioned in #2134 (comment), pathInStore is the correct and intended behavior. Using absolute impure paths is an unintended instance of Hyrum's Law. Considering the pathInStore guarantee will eventually be removed either way, I opened #2150.

To preserve the original behaviour, coercedTo path (p: "${p}") path could be used, but the type's description ought to be customised in this case to properly convey "any absolute path, but if convertible to a store-path this is done automatically".

(
  coercedTo path (p: "${p}") path
  // {
    description = path.description + ", copied to store if possible";
  }
)

With #2150, it would be better to consider the store copying aspect as an implementation detail that is irrelvant to end-users, especially because the store copy cannot be guaranteed.