bug#72135: Debian ‘guix’ package lacks zstd support

bug#72135: Debian ‘guix’ package lacks zstd support

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello Vagrant and all,

We’ve been recommending the Debian package as one of the easy way to get
Guix installed.  However, it currently lacks zstd support (with
guile-zstd):

  https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/guix

The consequence is that it guix-daemon crashes badly when talking to
substitute servers where nothing but zstd is enabled, such as
https://guix.bordeaux.inria.fr:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ guix build pastix
substitute: updating substitutes from 'https://ci.guix.gnu.org'... 100.0%
substitute: updating substitutes from 'https://guix.bordeaux.inria.fr'... 100.0%
substitute: Backtrace:
substitute: In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
substitute:   1752:10 17 (with-exception-handler _ _ #:unwind? _ # _)
substitute: In unknown file:
substitute:           16 (apply-smob/0 #<thunk 735d7f915300>)
substitute: In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
substitute:     724:2 15 (call-with-prompt _ _ #<procedure default-prompt-handle…>)
substitute: In ice-9/eval.scm:
substitute:     619:8 14 (_ #(#(#<directory (guile-user) 735d7f918c80>)))
substitute: In guix/ui.scm:
substitute:    2275:7 13 (run-guix . _)
substitute:   2238:10 12 (run-guix-command _ . _)
substitute: In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
substitute:   1752:10 11 (with-exception-handler _ _ #:unwind? _ # _)
substitute:   1752:10 10 (with-exception-handler _ _ #:unwind? _ # _)
substitute: In guix/scripts/substitute.scm:
substitute:    842:18  9 (_)
substitute:     352:7  8 (process-query #<output: file 4> _ #:cache-urls _ #:acl _)
substitute: In srfi/srfi-1.scm:
substitute:     634:9  7 (for-each #<procedure 735d7c38df80 at guix/scripts/sub…> …)
substitute: In guix/scripts/substitute.scm:
substitute:    297:13  6 (_ #<<narinfo> path: "/gnu/store/y4qhgdhgy7np5v1lnsqvm1…>)
substitute: In guix/narinfo.scm:
substitute:     346:2  5 (narinfo-best-uri _ #:fast-decompression? _)
substitute: In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
substitute:   1685:16  4 (raise-exception _ #:continuable? _)
substitute:   1685:16  3 (raise-exception _ #:continuable? _)
substitute:   1780:13  2 (_ #<&compound-exception components: (#<&error> #<&orig…>)
substitute:   1685:16  1 (raise-exception _ #:continuable? _)
substitute:   1685:16  0 (raise-exception _ #:continuable? _)
substitute: 
substitute: ice-9/boot-9.scm:1685:16: In procedure raise-exception:
substitute: Throw to key `match-error' with args `("match" "no matching pattern" ())'.
guix build: error: `/usr/bin/guix substitute' died unexpectedly
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Would it be possible to add guile-zstd as a dependency of the Debian
‘guix’ package?  This alone would noticeably improve user experience.

(I know this should be a Debian bug report, but I’m sorta acting as a
proxy.  :-))

Thanks,
Ludo’.

bug#72135: Debian ‘guix’ package lacks zstd support

[Simon Tournier]

Hi Ludo,

On Tue, 16 Jul 2024 at 10:41, Ludovic Courtès <ludovic.courtes@inria.fr> wrote:

> (I know this should be a Debian bug report, but I’m sorta acting as a
> proxy.  :-))

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1072918

        Reported by: Marvin Krause <public@mkrause.org>
        Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2024 10:45:01 UTC
        Severity: important
        Found in version guix/1.4.0-3+deb12u1


>                  However, it currently lacks zstd support (with
> guile-zstd):
>
>   https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/guix

Well, I am not an expert on the Debian releases, but I guess it is not
possible to backport all the stuff for this ’oldstable’ Debian release.

Hum, I do not remember all the details but I remember discussing this
sort of issue in [1].

That said, after “apt install guix”, does the guix-daemon update work?
Somehow if “guix pull” as root fails after a fresh install via APT, then
it’s a bug on Guix side, else it’s a bug on Debian side tracked by
1072918. :-)


And as reported above, the issue is still in ’stable’ Debian release.


1: Re: Are gzip-compressed substitutes still used?
Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@debian.org>
Wed, 17 Mar 2021 11:08:38 -0700
id:87o8fhwt3t.fsf@yucca
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2021-03
https://yhetil.org/guix/87o8fhwt3t.fsf@yucca

Cheers,
simon

bug#72135: Debian ‘guix’ package lacks zstd support

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello,

Simon Tournier <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> skribis:

> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1072918

Oh, nice.

> That said, after “apt install guix”, does the guix-daemon update work?
> Somehow if “guix pull” as root fails after a fresh install via APT, then
> it’s a bug on Guix side, else it’s a bug on Debian side tracked by
> 1072918. :-)

Upgrading guix-daemon when it was originally installed with apt is
tricky: you need to modify /etc/systemd/system/guix-daemon.service so
that it refers to the one in /var/guix/….  So I think few people upgrade
the daemon on Debian.

I’m not sure how to improve on that; we could document it under
“Upgrading Guix” at least.

Thanks,
Ludo’.

bug#72135: Debian ‘guix’ package lacks zstd support

[Simon Tournier]

Hi,

On Thu, 18 Jul 2024 at 09:21, Ludovic Courtès <ludovic.courtes@inria.fr> wrote:

>> That said, after “apt install guix”, does the guix-daemon update work?
>> Somehow if “guix pull” as root fails after a fresh install via APT, then
>> it’s a bug on Guix side, else it’s a bug on Debian side tracked by
>> 1072918. :-)
>
> Upgrading guix-daemon when it was originally installed with apt is
> tricky: you need to modify /etc/systemd/system/guix-daemon.service so
> that it refers to the one in /var/guix/….  So I think few people upgrade
> the daemon on Debian.

Indeed.  Even, let note that the default configuration provided by Guix
seems patched by Debian [1].

So yeah the only way is to modify
/etc/systemd/system/guix-daemon.service  and restart the service.

> I’m not sure how to improve on that; we could document it under
> “Upgrading Guix” at least.

Well, yes the documentation on our side is a good start. :-)

Then, I do not know either how to improve on that.  I mean a typical
Debian cycle is 3-5 years for a release – oldstable Debian (Bulleye)
provides guix-daemon version 1.2.0 – then it would mean we must support
backward compatibility for substitutes to this all range; as Vagrant
warned in [2]. :-)

Well, patches could be accepted for fixing security in guix-daemon but I
am not convinced patches for some new/deprecated features would be
accepted.

Maybe we could provide some patches for oldstable Debian that modify
guix-daemon.service and friends.  Vagrant wrote [3]:

        It is of course possible to configure to use an updated guix-daemon from
        a user's profile (e.g. as recommended with guix-binary installation on a
        foreign distro), but out-of-the-box it uses the guix-daemon shipped in
        the package, which, at least with my Debian hat on, is how it should be.

So I do not know what would be the best here. :-)


Cheers,
simon


1: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/guix/-/blob/b1d0628cbedea22f175a463f4c4935d02601bf93/debian/patches/guix-services-from-usr-bin

2: Re: Are gzip-compressed substitutes still used?
Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@debian.org>
Wed, 17 Mar 2021 11:08:38 -0700
id:87o8fhwt3t.fsf@yucca
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2021-03
https://yhetil.org/guix/87o8fhwt3t.fsf@yucca

3: Re: Are gzip-compressed substitutes still used?
Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@debian.org>
Thu, 18 Mar 2021 09:00:20 -0700
id:87eegcwiy3.fsf@yucca
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2021-03
https://yhetil.org/guix/87eegcwiy3.fsf@yucca