First time guix build

First time guix build

[Alex Sassmannshausen]

Hello,

I'm trying my hand at building guix and have run into some
problems. I've cloned the git repository à la:
$ git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/guix.git
followed by 
$ cd guile; autoreconf -vif
$ ./configure && make

All commands up until make work fine. Unfortunately make
exits with an error: 
make: *** No rule to make target `nix/libstore/schema.sql',
 needed by `nix/libstore/schema.sql.hh'.  Stop.

In the meantime I've successfully build Guix from the 
tarball on the GNU alpha downloads page, but I thought
this error might still be good to mention here — is there
anything obvious I may have done wrong?

Best wishes,

Alex

Re: First time guix build

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello,

Alex Sassmannshausen <alex.sassmannshausen@gmail.com> skribis:

> I'm trying my hand at building guix and have run into some
> problems. I've cloned the git repository à la:
> $ git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/guix.git
> followed by 
> $ cd guile; autoreconf -vif
> $ ./configure && make

You actually need to run the ./bootstrap script instead of ‘autoreconf’.

It does a couple more things: it initializes a Git sub-module that
points to the Nix repo, and copies the subset of Nix source code that we
need in the nix/ directory.

Let us know how it works!

Ludo’.

Re: First time guix build

[Alex Sassmannshausen]

That seems to have worked a treat — thanks for your help.

Whilst reading the published manual on the GNU Guix website I came across the following three sentences that could maybe be improved (their all in section 3.1):
'Instead of referring to these directories, users have their own profile, which points to the packages that they actually want to use. That profile is normally stored in $HOME/.guix-profile, and each user has its own profile. '
Would probably sound better and read easier if it were:
'Instead of referring to these directories, users each have their own profile, which points to the packages that they actually want to use. These profiles are stored within each user's own home directory, at $HOME/.guix-profile.'

The nextparagraph could be rewritten as (though maybe just unnecessary rewording):
For example, alice installs GCC 4.7.2. As a result, gcc in her profile, /home/alice/.guix-profile/bin/gcc would point to /nix/store/xxx-gcc-4.7.2/bin/gcc. Now, on the same machine, bob had already installed GCC 4.8.0. Bob's profile simply continues to point to /nix/store/xxx-gcc-4.8.0/bin/gcc; i.e. both versions of GCC coexist on the same system without any interference.

Finally, what I think is a typ-o:
…if the guix-package processed is terminated… 
should be
…if the guix-package process is terminated…

I also just now, when re-configuring with a different store directory, noticed that there might be a typ-o in the localstatedir param example. It currently says:
The default values are --with-store-dir=/nix/store and --localstatedir=/nix/var.
But I think it should read
[…] and --localstatedir=/var/nix.

Hope this helps, let me know if it's better to provide this kind of thing in a different fashion.

Best,

Alex

Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:

> Hello,
>
> Alex Sassmannshausen <alex.sassmannshausen@gmail.com> skribis:
>
>> I'm trying my hand at building guix and have run into some
>> problems. I've cloned the git repository à la:
>> $ git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/guix.git
>> followed by 
>> $ cd guile; autoreconf -vif
>> $ ./configure && make
>
> You actually need to run the ./bootstrap script instead of ‘autoreconf’.
>
> It does a couple more things: it initializes a Git sub-module that
> points to the Nix repo, and copies the subset of Nix source code that we
> need in the nix/ directory.
>
> Let us know how it works!
>
> Ludo’.

Re: First time guix build

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi Alex,

Alex Sassmannshausen <alex.sassmannshausen@gmail.com> skribis:

> Whilst reading the published manual on the GNU Guix website I came across the following three sentences that could maybe be improved (their all in section 3.1):
> 'Instead of referring to these directories, users have their own profile, which points to the packages that they actually want to use. That profile is normally stored in $HOME/.guix-profile, and each user has its own profile. '
> Would probably sound better and read easier if it were:
> 'Instead of referring to these directories, users each have their own profile, which points to the packages that they actually want to use. These profiles are stored within each user's own home directory, at $HOME/.guix-profile.'

Indeed.

> The nextparagraph could be rewritten as (though maybe just unnecessary rewording):
> For example, alice installs GCC 4.7.2. As a result, gcc in her profile, /home/alice/.guix-profile/bin/gcc would point to /nix/store/xxx-gcc-4.7.2/bin/gcc. Now, on the same machine, bob had already installed GCC 4.8.0. Bob's profile simply continues to point to /nix/store/xxx-gcc-4.8.0/bin/gcc; i.e. both versions of GCC coexist on the same system without any interference.

Yes, makes sense.

> Finally, what I think is a typ-o:
> …if the guix-package processed is terminated… 
> should be
> …if the guix-package process is terminated…

Right.

I’ve applied these suggestions in commit 821b001.

> I also just now, when re-configuring with a different store directory, noticed that there might be a typ-o in the localstatedir param example. It currently says:
> The default values are --with-store-dir=/nix/store and --localstatedir=/nix/var.
> But I think it should read
> […] and --localstatedir=/var/nix.

No, /nix/var is really what is meant here.

> Hope this helps, let me know if it's better to provide this kind of thing in a different fashion.

The source of this document is the doc/guix.texi file in the source code
repository.  It’s more convenient if you send a patch against that file
(ideally using the ‘git format-patch’ command), but it’s also helpful if
you report typos like you did.

Thanks!

Ludo’.