From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Mark H Weaver Subject: bug#32167: Kernel 'build' directory in the store is a broken symbolic link Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2018 18:03:58 -0400 Message-ID: <87r2k2u9bl.fsf@netris.org> References: <20180716201500.3d1f13ae@scratchpost.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:60746) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ffBd8-0005R6-P6 for bug-guix@gnu.org; Mon, 16 Jul 2018 18:06:07 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ffBd4-0004bW-8M for bug-guix@gnu.org; Mon, 16 Jul 2018 18:06:06 -0400 Received: from debbugs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.43]:39090) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ffBd4-0004bL-3J for bug-guix@gnu.org; Mon, 16 Jul 2018 18:06:02 -0400 Received: from Debian-debbugs by debbugs.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1ffBd3-0001pS-Os for bug-guix@gnu.org; Mon, 16 Jul 2018 18:06:01 -0400 Sender: "Debbugs-submit" Resent-Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <20180716201500.3d1f13ae@scratchpost.org> (Danny Milosavljevic's message of "Mon, 16 Jul 2018 20:15:00 +0200") List-Id: Bug reports for GNU Guix List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: bug-guix-bounces+gcggb-bug-guix=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "bug-Guix" To: Danny Milosavljevic Cc: 32167@debbugs.gnu.org, pkill9@runbox.com Danny Milosavljevic writes: > On Mon, 16 Jul 2018 18:55:11 +0100 (BST) > wrote: > >> It would be good to keep the build directory though, since it's >> expected to exist, and it's easier to just download a module's >> source and compile it and test it. > > I agree. > > /run/booted-system/kernel/lib/modules/4.17.3-gnu is in the store > anyway so it will be seen by the GC. > > The fix would be in linux-libre. If we were to preserve the kernel build directory as a store item, and keep a link from the modules directory to the build directory, that would greatly increase the size of the most minimal system that users could build. The unpacked linux-libre-4.17 source directory is 929 megabytes, and that's before building it. So, keeping the build directory would surely increase the closure size of the most minimal system by more than a gigabyte. I don't think it's okay to force all Guix users to pay that price. Some users will need to build minimal systems. I'd like to hear more specifics about what the original poster is trying to accomplish here. It's possible that they simply noticed the broken links and wanted to let us know. In that case, it's probably best to simply delete those broken symlinks. If the intent here is to allow support for out-of-tree kernel modules, then fixing these symlinks would not solve the problem, and it's not clear to me that fixing them would be part of a proper solution on GuixSD. GuixSD is not a system where you can simply compile a kernel module manually and install it, because our module directory is immutable. If the goal is to support building out-of-tree kernel modules, that's a separate discussion that deserves its own "wishlist" bug report, I think. Thoughts? Mark