From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic =?utf-8?Q?Court=C3=A8s?=) Subject: Re: gnu-system-demo feedback Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 18:57:23 +0200 Message-ID: <871u3lcfws.fsf@gnu.org> References: <87ppranpd1.fsf@walter-nb.nord-com.it> <874n8k3trv.fsf@gnu.org> <87iowzn7su.fsf@walter-nb.nord-com.it> <87k3hfipf8.fsf@gnu.org> <87k3hdgy1j.fsf@gnu.org> <878uxtnqji.fsf@walter-nb.nord-com.it> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:47335) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VWUPq-0004vd-OQ for guix-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 16 Oct 2013 12:57:52 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VWUPk-0005lo-MU for guix-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 16 Oct 2013 12:57:46 -0400 Received: from mail2-relais-roc.national.inria.fr ([192.134.164.83]:10492) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VWUPk-0005le-FS for guix-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 16 Oct 2013 12:57:40 -0400 In-Reply-To: <878uxtnqji.fsf@walter-nb.nord-com.it> (Walter Franzini's message of "Wed, 16 Oct 2013 18:12:17 +0200") List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Walter Franzini Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org Walter Franzini skribis: > On Wed, Oct 16 2013, Ludovic Court=C3=A8s wrote: > > [...] > >> The files in /etc are symlinks to files under /nix/store, and it=E2=80= =99s those >> files that were removed. The symlinks were still there, just dangling. > > I'm unable to find information about handling of local modification to > configuration files. The idea (this is WIP) is to use a purely declarative approach =C3=A0 la NixOS (see .) Under this approach, administrators declare all the specifics of the system-wide configuration: what user accounts are available, what the default locale is, what file systems are mounted, which services are started, etc. The configuration can be =E2=80=9Cinstantiated=E2=80=9D and used. When the= admin wants to change something in the system config, they adjust the declaration accordingly, instantiate the new configuration, and switch to it. The obvious advantages of this declarative approach are: control (there=E2=80=99s a direct mapping from the declaration to its on-disk instantiation), transactional configuration upgrade, and the ability to roll back (it=E2=80=99s just a matter of referring to the files that result= ed from the previous instantiation.) You can look at the (somewhat ugly) =E2=80=98system-qemu-image=E2=80=99 pro= cedure in gnu/system/vm.scm to get an idea of what this looks like here. It contains declarations of system services, user accounts, and so on. HTH, Ludo=E2=80=99.