Hi!

In context of
<http://news.gmane.org/find-root.php?message_id=%3C87lhg2je9j.fsf%40kepler.schwinge.homeip.net%3E>,
I'm now installing Guix (GNU Guix 0.8.2 Binary) for the first time.  I
noticed a few issues that have been raised in this thread already (I have
not yet read every message in detail); so I'm hijacking this thread but
will now just dump here what I wrote down during installation, and if
there remains anything still to be sorted out, we can work on that later.

<http://www.gnu.org/software/guix/download/>.

    $ wget 'ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/guix/guix-binary-0.8.2.x86_64-linux.tar.xz' 'ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/guix/guix-binary-0.8.2.x86_64-linux.tar.xz.sig'
    $ gpg --verify guix-binary-0.8.2.x86_64-linux.tar.xz.sig

<http://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Binary-Installation.html>.

    $ cd /
    $ sudo tar --skip-old-files -xJ < ~/tmp/guix/guix-binary-0.8.2.x86_64-linux.tar.xz

I'm not a fan of extracting tarballs inside populated directories; so I'm
in favor on the suggested change to extract inside a temporary directory,
and then move everything in place as a separate step.

    $ sudo ls -ld /root/.guix-profile /var/guix /gnu
    drwxr-xr-x 3 30001 30000 4096 Mai 14 10:36 /gnu
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 30001 30000   45 Mai 14 10:36 /root/.guix-profile -> /var/guix/profiles/per-user/root/guix-profile
    drwxr-xr-x 6 30001 30000 4096 Mai 14 10:36 /var/guix

Should the tarball be packed such that it uses UID:GID 0:0, which -- I
think? -- is always expected to map to root:root?  Which UID:GID should I
now chown the files to?

It's very common, but I don't think there's a hard requirement for the
root user's home directory to be /root.  Maybe instead of shipping it in
the tarball, the symbolic link should be created by an explicit command?

    $ sudo ln -sf /var/guix/profiles/per-user/root/guix-profile ~root/.guix-profile

<http://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Build-Environment-Setup.html>.

    $ sudo groupadd --system guix-builder
    $ for i in `seq 1 10`; do sudo useradd -g guix-builder -G guix-builder -d /var/empty -s `which nologin` -c "Guix build user $i" --system guix-builder$i; done

Please describe why ten is a good amount of Guix build users.

For reference, the GID and UIDs this created on my system:

    $ getent group | grep -i guix
    guix-builder:x:998:guix-builder1,guix-builder2,guix-builder3,guix-builder4,guix-builder5,guix-builder6,guix-builder7,guix-builder8,guix-builder9,guix-builder10
    $ getent passwd | grep -i guix
    guix-builder1:x:999:998:Guix build user 1:/var/empty:/usr/sbin/nologin
    guix-builder2:x:998:998:Guix build user 2:/var/empty:/usr/sbin/nologin
    guix-builder3:x:997:998:Guix build user 3:/var/empty:/usr/sbin/nologin
    guix-builder4:x:996:998:Guix build user 4:/var/empty:/usr/sbin/nologin
    guix-builder5:x:995:998:Guix build user 5:/var/empty:/usr/sbin/nologin
    guix-builder6:x:994:998:Guix build user 6:/var/empty:/usr/sbin/nologin
    guix-builder7:x:993:998:Guix build user 7:/var/empty:/usr/sbin/nologin
    guix-builder8:x:992:998:Guix build user 8:/var/empty:/usr/sbin/nologin
    guix-builder9:x:991:998:Guix build user 9:/var/empty:/usr/sbin/nologin
    guix-builder10:x:990:998:Guix build user 10:/var/empty:/usr/sbin/nologin


Grüße,
 Thomas