Re: Using Guix archive (Help!)

[Pjotr Prins <pjotr.public12@thebird.nl>]

I guess no one uses this format ;). I set up another guix publish
server for Fred (Africa could not reach guix.genenetwork.org for some
reason). 

I know we can use Guix pack but that don't play well with a running
Guix system. Now if we could unpack it would be solved.

I'll have a think about this.

Pj.

On Wed, Jan 03, 2018 at 12:08:36PM +0100, Pjotr Prins wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am trying to send a NAR archive to Fred. We are facing a few issues.
> First I created the archive
> 
>    env GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH=../guix-bioinformatics/ ./pre-inst-env guix archive --export -r --no-grafts genenetwork2 > gn2.nar
> 
> and Fred installed the key and unpacked it. Unfortunately it does not
> contain package dependencies, such as mysql:
> 
>    https://gitlab.com/genenetwork/guix-bioinformatics/blob/master/gn/packages/genenetwork.scm#L194
> 
> somehow propagated-inputs don't go into the archive. You'd think they are critical
> dependencies.
> 
>   Q1: is that to be expected? 
> 
> NAR files are signed. I think it would be very useful to be able to
> distribute unsigned NAR files.
> 
>   Q2: can signing/checking be made optional?
> 
> I can't view the contents.
> 
>   Q3: how do we view the contents of a NAR file without unpacking it?
> 
> and
> 
>   Q4: is there a nice way to include a profile path in the store that
>       can be used quickly?
> 
> The alternative is tarballing an environment/container, but the
> problem there is that Fred's Guix daemon won't be aware of the new
> packages. We want to avoid using Docker.
> 
>   Q5: is there an elegant way to add those unpacked store items to the
>   database?
> 
> Thanks! I tried using NAR Files before and gave up. I hope it is clear
> why.
> 
> Pj.
> 

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