Re: Using Guix archive (Help!)

[Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>]

Hi Pjotr,

> somehow propagated-inputs don't go into the archive. You'd think they are critical
> dependencies.
>
>   Q1: is that to be expected?

I’m not sure, but it seems wrong.  What I used to do is to create a
profile and export that recursively:

  guix archive --export --recursive \
    $(readlink -f /project/.guix-profile) | \
    gzip --stdout - > my-profile.nar.gz

This should include propagated inputs.

> 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?

I don’t think you can.  It’s a custom format implemented by
nix/libutil/archive.cc.

>   Q4: is there a nice way to include a profile path in the store that
>       can be used quickly?

What do you mean by “include … in the store”?  With the above command to
recursively export profiles you get a single archive that can be
imported to the store as a profile.

>   Q5: is there an elegant way to add those unpacked store items to the
>   database?

What unpacked store items do you mean?

--
Ricardo

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