Make a portable binary distribution from any nix package

mkBinDist.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -e

# Path to thhe nix file containing the derivation we want to package
NIXFILE=./path/to/some/nixfile.nix
# Refer to the attribute in the nix file containing the derivation we want to package
ATTRARG="-A foo"

# "drv" will be set to the path inside /nix/store which contains the resulting the derivation
drv=$(nix-build $NIXFILE $ATTRARG)

# output filename
tarball=$(pwd)/bindist.tar.xz

# temporary working directory
tmpdir=$(mktemp -d)
trap "rm -rf $tmpdir" EXIT

cd $tmpdir

# create symlinks inside target's usr/local/bin to every executable in the derivation (non-transitively)
mkdir -p usr/local/bin
for binary in $(find ${drv}/bin); do 
  ln -s ${binary} usr/local/bin/$(basename ${binary})
done

# finally, pack the full closure of the derivation with the symlinks
# we just created
tar cvJf $tarball --owner 0 --group 0 usr $(nix-store -qR $drv)