bug#45166: Wrong locale settings for guix-daemon causes confusing error

bug#45166: Wrong locale settings for guix-daemon causes confusing error

[Marius Bakke]

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Hello,

User sss2 reported on #guix[0] that running guix-daemon with an invalid
locale causes the following error:

# guix pull
Updating channel 'guix' from Git repository at 'https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git'...
Building from this channel:
  guix      https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git   77667e2
Computing Guix derivation for 'x86_64-linux'... |
guix pull: error: got unexpected path `hint: Consider installing the `glibc-utf8-locales' or `glibc-locales' package and' from substituter

[0] https://logs.guix.gnu.org/guix/2020-12-10.log#221732

I can reproduce it on a foreign distro by adding this to the systemd
service file:

  Environment='GUIX_LOCPATH=/var/guix/profiles/per-user/root/guix-profile/lib/locale' LC_ALL=en-US.utf8

(note the en-US typo)

This seems to be a recent regression, as I could not reproduce with an
old guix-daemon (I believe beba9ff82123c4a82721b2ed14df2c7576e22e85).

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bug#45166: Wrong locale settings for guix-daemon causes confusing error

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi,

Marius Bakke <marius@gnu.org> skribis:

> User sss2 reported on #guix[0] that running guix-daemon with an invalid
> locale causes the following error:
>
> # guix pull
> Updating channel 'guix' from Git repository at 'https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git'...
> Building from this channel:
>   guix      https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git   77667e2
> Computing Guix derivation for 'x86_64-linux'... |
> guix pull: error: got unexpected path `hint: Consider installing the `glibc-utf8-locales' or `glibc-locales' package and' from substituter

How did they run the daemon?  The systemd unit file we provide normally
makes sure it runs with the right GUIX_LOCPATH and with a valid locale.

Thanks,
Ludo’.

bug#45166: Wrong locale settings for guix-daemon causes confusing error

[Marius Bakke]

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Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> skriver:

> Hi,
>
> Marius Bakke <marius@gnu.org> skribis:
>
>> User sss2 reported on #guix[0] that running guix-daemon with an invalid
>> locale causes the following error:
>>
>> # guix pull
>> Updating channel 'guix' from Git repository at 'https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git'...
>> Building from this channel:
>>   guix      https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git   77667e2
>> Computing Guix derivation for 'x86_64-linux'... |
>> guix pull: error: got unexpected path `hint: Consider installing the `glibc-utf8-locales' or `glibc-locales' package and' from substituter
>
> How did they run the daemon?  The systemd unit file we provide normally
> makes sure it runs with the right GUIX_LOCPATH and with a valid locale.

It was a hand-written systemd unit file, hence the error.  My main
concern is with this error message:

  guix pull: error: got unexpected path `hint: Consider installing the `glibc-utf8-locales' or `glibc-locales' package and' from substituter

Previously, the daemon would continue in the face of wrong locale
settings, but print lots of warnings, now it fails hard and early with
this unhelpful message.

If that is intended, can we catch it and provide a more actionable error
message?

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bug#45166: Wrong locale settings for guix-daemon causes confusing error

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi,

Marius Bakke <marius@gnu.org> skribis:

> Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> skriver:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Marius Bakke <marius@gnu.org> skribis:
>>
>>> User sss2 reported on #guix[0] that running guix-daemon with an invalid
>>> locale causes the following error:
>>>
>>> # guix pull
>>> Updating channel 'guix' from Git repository at 'https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git'...
>>> Building from this channel:
>>>   guix      https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git   77667e2
>>> Computing Guix derivation for 'x86_64-linux'... |
>>> guix pull: error: got unexpected path `hint: Consider installing the `glibc-utf8-locales' or `glibc-locales' package and' from substituter
>>
>> How did they run the daemon?  The systemd unit file we provide normally
>> makes sure it runs with the right GUIX_LOCPATH and with a valid locale.
>
> It was a hand-written systemd unit file, hence the error.  My main
> concern is with this error message:
>
>   guix pull: error: got unexpected path `hint: Consider installing the `glibc-utf8-locales' or `glibc-locales' package and' from substituter
>
> Previously, the daemon would continue in the face of wrong locale
> settings, but print lots of warnings, now it fails hard and early with
> this unhelpful message.
>
> If that is intended, can we catch it and provide a more actionable error
> message?

No, that must be a regression somewhere, but I’m not sure where.

Does it happen if you run say “guix build hello” and a substitute is
downloaded?  Or “guix build hello -S --no-substitutes”?

Thanks,
Ludo’.