From 184d7a8b99e2ff0e071fd2d4d50e1682c6522cbb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Marnik Bercx <mbercx@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2026 08:54:37 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] =?UTF-8?q?=F0=9F=90=9B=20Conda:=20Let=20activated=20envs?=
 =?UTF-8?q?=20win=20over=20`~/.local/bin`=20on=20PATH?=
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The `~/.local/bin` symlinks are meant as a convenience layer so that unpackaged
binaries from each code env are reachable without activating anything, but they
were shadowing the real env binaries after `workon`:

    (koopmans) max@qmobile:~$ which pw.x
    /home/max/.local/bin/pw.x
    (koopmans) max@qmobile:~$ echo $PATH
    /home/max/.local/bin:/home/max/.conda/envs/koopmans/bin:...

The cause is ordering in `~/.bashrc`. The previous symlink task wrote an

    `export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"`

block at end-of-file via `blockinfile` (default position), which runs AFTER the
miniforge-managed `conda initialize` block. So conda would correctly swap in the
env's `bin/` on activation, but the later `~/.local/bin` export then
re- prepended itself and won every lookup. For binaries that are symlinks into
the env this was a no-op; for binaries that exist in the env but NOT as symlinks
(e.g. anything not listed in `bin_patterns`) it still looked right; but for
anything symlinked from a DIFFERENT env it was wrong — `workon koopmans` still
resolved `pw.x` to the `qespresso` env.

Here we extract the `~/.local/bin` setup into a dedicated
`local/tasks/setup-local-bin.yml` and run it from `playbook-build-dev.yml` once,
before the conda install. The export block now uses `insertbefore: BOF` so it
lands at the top of `.bashrc`, to be sure it lands before the conda init block
that miniforge appends later in the file. After a login shell initialises,
`conda activate` prepends the env bin and wins over `~/.local/bin`.

Also drop the directory-create and block-management steps from
`conda-env-install.yml`, since the base layer now guarantees both — the task is
reduced to the symlink loop, which is the part that is actually per-env.
---
 local/tasks/conda-env-install.yml | 11 -----------
 local/tasks/setup-local-bin.yml   | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++
 playbook-build-dev.yml            |  4 ++++
 3 files changed, 27 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 local/tasks/setup-local-bin.yml

diff --git a/local/tasks/conda-env-install.yml b/local/tasks/conda-env-install.yml
index 9b4c0e2..980d447 100644
--- a/local/tasks/conda-env-install.yml
+++ b/local/tasks/conda-env-install.yml
@@ -20,17 +20,6 @@
   become_user: "{{ vm_user }}"
   when: bin_patterns is defined and bin_patterns | length > 0
   block:
-  - name: "Create ~/.local/bin"
-    ansible.builtin.file:
-      path: "/home/{{ vm_user }}/.local/bin"
-      state: directory
-      mode: "0755"
-  - name: "Add ~/.local/bin to PATH in .bashrc"
-    ansible.builtin.blockinfile:
-      path: "/home/{{ vm_user }}/.bashrc"
-      marker: "## {mark} ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK (~/.local/bin)"
-      block: |
-        export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
   - name: "Find binaries matching patterns"
     ansible.builtin.find:
       paths: "/home/{{ vm_user }}/.conda/envs/{{ conda_env }}/bin"
diff --git a/local/tasks/setup-local-bin.yml b/local/tasks/setup-local-bin.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9677cdd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/local/tasks/setup-local-bin.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+---
+# Create ~/.local/bin and prepend it to PATH in .bashrc.
+# The export is inserted at BOF so conda init (appended later by the miniforge
+# installer) ends up AFTER it in .bashrc, letting conda env activation prepend
+# its own bin/ and win on PATH resolution.
+
+- name: "Create ~/.local/bin"
+  become: true
+  become_user: "{{ vm_user }}"
+  ansible.builtin.file:
+    path: "/home/{{ vm_user }}/.local/bin"
+    state: directory
+    mode: "0755"
+
+- name: "Add ~/.local/bin to PATH in .bashrc"
+  become: true
+  become_user: "{{ vm_user }}"
+  ansible.builtin.blockinfile:
+    path: "/home/{{ vm_user }}/.bashrc"
+    marker: "## {mark} ANSIBLE MANAGED BLOCK (~/.local/bin)"
+    insertbefore: BOF
+    block: |
+      export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
diff --git a/playbook-build-dev.yml b/playbook-build-dev.yml
index e4aba8e..8f22ead 100644
--- a/playbook-build-dev.yml
+++ b/playbook-build-dev.yml
@@ -122,6 +122,10 @@
     ansible.builtin.import_role:
       name: marvel-nccr.slurm
 
+  - name: "Setup ~/.local/bin on PATH"
+    tags: [local-bin]
+    ansible.builtin.import_tasks: local/tasks/setup-local-bin.yml
+
   - name: Install conda+mamba
     tags: [conda]
     ansible.builtin.import_role: