gistfile1.txt

% cat default.nix
{stdenv, fetchurl}:

let version = "2.0.7";
in stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
  name = "perp-${version}";

  src = fetchurl {
    url = "http://b0llix.net/perp/distfiles/${name}-${version}.tar.gz";
    sha256 = "1222fe31c16014d8b2a78416f93ba9f8c31eddbc381adc9021fa5d9764475815";
  };

  configurePhase = ''
    substituteInPlace conf.mk --replace /usr/bin $out/bin
    substituteInPlace conf.mk --replace /usr/sbin $out/sbin
    substituteInPlace conf.mk --replace /usr/share/man $out/share/man
  '';

  dontStrip = true;
  preFixup = "make strip";

  #perpBase = "$out/etc/perp";
   #~/Library/Application Support

  #workingDir = "var/run/perp";
  #~/Library/Caches

  #postInstall = ''
    #ensureDir ${perpBase}
    #NO_INIT=1 $out/sbin/perp-setup", ${perpBase}
    #ln -s ${workingDir} ${perpBase}/.control
  #''

  meta = {
    homepage = "http://b0llix.net/perp/";
    description = "Persistent process supervisor and service managment framework";
    platforms = stdenv.lib.platforms.all;
    license = {
      shortName = "perp";
      longName = "perp license";
      url = "http://b0llix.net/perp/site.cgi?page=LICENSE";
    };
  };
}

% nix-build
error: cannot auto-call a function that has an argument without a default value (`stdenv')
% nix-build --dry-run --argstr platform darwin --argstr system i686-linux -- ./default.nix
error: cannot auto-call a function that has an argument without a default value (`stdenv')

Try:

let version = "2.0.7";
    pkgs = import <nixpkgs> { };
in with pkgs; stdenv.mkDerivation rec {