Re: collection of “guix pull“ bug reports

[Simon Tournier <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com>]

Hi Maxim,

On Sat, 26 Aug 2023 at 22:34, Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com> wrote:

>> https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/62830
>> https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/63451
>> https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/63830
>> https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/64489
>> https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/64659
>> https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/64753
>> https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/64963

[...]

>> Any idea about what could be unexpected or what needs some love?
>
> I haven't checked the above links, but I think something that would help
> in this regard is better handling of network issues.  E.g, don't print a
> backtrace on the first connection failure; retry maybe 3 times then
> print a helpful error mentioning the network appears unreliable.

IMHO, this collection raises two questions:

  1. Why does it happen?  To say it explicitly, I am almost sure that
  something is not smoothly working as expected on server side.  For
  instance, I had ‘guix pull’ troubles with a machine and I am doubtful
  that this machine has network issue (this machine is using the fast
  network link of my Univ. employer :-))

  2. What could be done on client side for reducing the annoyance?  I
  agree that substitute failures should be better handled.  For example,
  retry 3 times then display an error message.  Etc.


Cheers,
simon

PS: About #2, please give a look at these annoyances:

  + Issue 1 and 2: Options --fallabck and --no-substitutes
  + Issue 3: Non consistent message for substitutes and/or fallback

from <https://simon.tournier.info/posts/2023-06-23-hackathon-repro.html>.