I was getting the following error building tide from Melpa:
nix-build -E '(import <nixpkgs> {}).emacs25WithPackages (p: [p.melpaPackages.tide])'
File tide-20170509.1134.tar is large (10.2M), really open? (y or n) Error reading from stdin
builder for ‘/nix/store/gs9ik7yf8iilsikkfing74i70m0diax3-emacs-tide-20170509.1134.drv’ failed with exit code 255
cannot build derivation ‘/nix/store/m3p080aani4rw82llp8nqk93cw2nvirk-emacs-with-packages-25.2.drv’: 1 dependencies couldn't be built
Solution was to disable the large file warning threshold when
installing packages.
Building packages requires package-build.el from Melpa, but installing
packages only requires package.el. Packages from ELPA are already built,
so there is no need to involve package-build.el.