Add basic directed acyclic graph data structure

Also make use of this instead of Nixpkgs's strings-with-deps library
in activation script generation.

modules/home-environment.nix

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 { config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
 
 with lib;
+with import ./lib/dag.nix;
 
 let
 
@@ -241,7 +242,11 @@ in
         //
         (maybeSet "LC_TIME" cfg.language.time);
 
-    home.activation.linkGeneration =
+    # A dummy entry acting as a boundary between the activation
+    # script's "check" and the "write" phases.
+    home.activation.writeBoundary = dagEntryAnywhere "";
+
+    home.activation.linkGeneration = dagEntryAfter ["writeBoundary"] (
       let
         link = pkgs.writeText "link" ''
           newGenFiles="$1"
@@ -303,27 +308,26 @@ in
           else
             echo "Same home files as previous generation ... doing nothing"
           fi
-        '';
+        ''
+    );
 
-    home.activation.installPackages =
-      ''
-        $DRY_RUN_CMD nix-env -i ${cfg.path}
-      '';
+    home.activation.installPackages = dagEntryAfter ["writeBoundary"] ''
+      $DRY_RUN_CMD nix-env -i ${cfg.path}
+    '';
 
     home.activationPackage =
       let
-        addHeader = n: v:
-          v // {
-            text = ''
-              echo Activating ${n}
-              ${v.text}
-            '';
-          };
-        toDepString = n: v: if isString v then noDepEntry v else v;
-        activationWithDeps =
-          mapAttrs addHeader (mapAttrs toDepString cfg.activation);
+        mkCmd = res: ''
+            echo Activating ${res.name}
+            ${res.data}
+          '';
+        sortedCommands = dagTopoSort cfg.activation;
         activationCmds =
-          textClosureMap id activationWithDeps (attrNames activationWithDeps);
+          if sortedCommands ? result then
+            concatStringsSep "\n" (map mkCmd sortedCommands.result)
+          else
+            abort ("Dependency cycle in activation script: "
+              + builtins.toJSON sortedCommands);
 
         sf = pkgs.writeText "activation-script" ''
           #!${pkgs.stdenv.shell}

modules/lib/dag.nix

@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+# A generalization of Nixpkgs's `strings-with-deps.nix`.
+#
+# The main differences from the Nixpkgs version are
+#
+#  - not specific to strings, i.e., any payload is OK,
+#
+#  - the addition of the function `dagEntryBefore` indicating a
+#    "wanted by" relationship.
+
+with import <nixpkgs/lib/strings.nix>;
+with import <nixpkgs/lib/attrsets.nix>;
+with import <nixpkgs/lib/lists.nix>;
+
+rec {
+
+  emptyDag = {};
+
+  isDag = dag:
+    let
+      isEntry = e: (e ? data) && (e ? after) && (e ? before);
+    in
+      builtins.isAttrs dag && all (x: x) (mapAttrsToList (n: isEntry) dag);
+
+  # Takes an attribute set containing entries built by
+  # dagEntryAnywhere, dagEntryAfter, and dagEntryBefore to a
+  # topologically sorted list of entries.
+  #
+  # Internally this function uses the `toposort` function in
+  # `<nixpkgs/lib/lists.nix>` and its value is accordingly.
+  #
+  # Specifically, the result on success is
+  #
+  #    { result = [{name = ?; data = ?;} …] }
+  #
+  # For example
+  #
+  #    nix-repl> dagTopoSort {
+  #                a = dagEntryAnywhere "1";
+  #                b = dagEntryAfter ["a" "c"] "2";
+  #                c = dagEntryBefore ["d"] "3";
+  #                d = dagEntryBefore ["e"] "4";
+  #                e = dagEntryAnywhere "5";
+  #              } == {
+  #                result = [
+  #                  { data = "1"; name = "a"; }
+  #                  { data = "3"; name = "c"; }
+  #                  { data = "2"; name = "b"; }
+  #                  { data = "4"; name = "d"; }
+  #                  { data = "5"; name = "e"; }
+  #                ];
+  #              }
+  #    true
+  #
+  # And the result on error is
+  #
+  #    {
+  #      cycle = [ {after = ?; name = ?; data = ?} … ];
+  #      loops = [ {after = ?; name = ?; data = ?} … ];
+  #    }
+  #
+  # For example
+  #
+  #    nix-repl> dagTopoSort {
+  #                a = dagEntryAnywhere "1";
+  #                b = dagEntryAfter ["a" "c"] "2";
+  #                c = dagEntryAfter ["d"] "3";
+  #                d = dagEntryAfter ["b"] "4";
+  #                e = dagEntryAnywhere "5";
+  #              } == {
+  #                cycle = [
+  #                  { after = ["a" "c"]; data = "2"; name = "b"; }
+  #                  { after = ["d"]; data = "3"; name = "c"; }
+  #                  { after = ["b"]; data = "4"; name = "d"; }
+  #                ];
+  #                loops = [
+  #                  { after = ["a" "c"]; data = "2"; name = "b"; }
+  #                ];
+  #              } == {}
+  #    true
+  dagTopoSort = dag:
+    let
+      dagBefore = dag: name:
+        mapAttrsToList (n: v: n) (
+          filterAttrs (n: v: any (a: a == name) v.before) dag
+        );
+      normalizedDag =
+        mapAttrs (n: v: {
+          name = n;
+          data = v.data;
+          after = v.after ++ dagBefore dag n;
+        }) dag;
+      before = a: b: any (c: a.name == c) b.after;
+      sorted = toposort before (mapAttrsToList (n: v: v) normalizedDag);
+    in
+      if sorted ? result then
+        { result = map (v: { inherit (v) name data; }) sorted.result; }
+      else
+        sorted;
+
+  # Applies a function to each element of the given DAG.
+  dagMap = f: dag: mapAttrs (n: v: v // { data = f n v.data; }) dag;
+
+  # Create a DAG entry with no particular dependency information.
+  dagEntryAnywhere = data: {
+    inherit data;
+    before = [];
+    after = [];
+  };
+
+  dagEntryBetween = before: after: data: {
+    inherit data before after;
+  };
+
+  dagEntryAfter = after: data: {
+    inherit data after;
+    before = [];
+  };
+
+  dagEntryBefore = before: data: {
+    inherit data before;
+    after = [];
+  };
+
+}

modules/programs/gnome-terminal.nix

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 { config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
 
 with lib;
+with import ../lib/dag.nix;
 
 let
 
@@ -177,18 +178,19 @@ in
   config = mkIf cfg.enable {
     home.packages = [ pkgs.gnome3.gnome_terminal ];
 
-    home.activation.gnomeTerminal =
+    # The dconf service needs to be installed and prepared.
+    home.activation.gnomeTerminal = dagEntryAfter ["installPackages"] (
       let
         sf = pkgs.writeText "gnome-terminal.ini" (toINI (buildIniSet cfg));
         dconfPath = "/org/gnome/terminal/legacy/";
       in
-        # The dconf service needs to be installed and prepared.
-        stringAfter [ "installPackages" ] ''
+        ''
           if [[ -v DRY_RUN ]]; then
             echo ${pkgs.gnome3.dconf}/bin/dconf load ${dconfPath} "<" ${sf}
           else
             ${pkgs.gnome3.dconf}/bin/dconf load ${dconfPath} < ${sf}
           fi
-        '';
+        ''
+    );
   };
 }

modules/systemd.nix

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 { config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
 
 with lib;
+with import ./lib/dag.nix;
 
 let
 
@@ -69,7 +70,7 @@ in
         (buildServices "timer" config.systemd.user.timers)
       );
 
-    home.activation.reloadSystemD = ''
+    home.activation.reloadSystemD = dagEntryAfter ["linkGeneration"] ''
       function systemdPostReload() {
         local workDir
         workDir="$(mktemp -d)"