Re: Better support remote deployment

[Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com>]

Hello,

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:

> Hi Maxim,
>
>> Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:
>>
>>> Hi Guix,
>>>
>>> I build software locally and deploy the result to a remote system with
>>> “guix copy”.  This works pretty well but has a few rough edges:
>>>
>>> 1. “guix build -m manifest.scm” does not generate a profile.  It only
>>> builds the list of packages.  To build a profile from a manifest file we
>>> need to resort to something like this:
>>>
>>>     guix shell -m $(PWD)/etc/container-server-manifest.scm -- sh -c 'echo $GUIX_ENVIRONMENT'
>>>
>>> 2. “guix package” cannot install an existing profile store item as the
>>> current generation of the profile.  It can, however, install individual
>>> package items into a profile.
>>>
>>> 3. “guix package --remove” does not support regular expressions, so
>>> removing packages that were installed with “guix install /gnu/store/…”
>>> cannot easily be removed.
>>>
>>> Because of these limitations I cannot make use of a Guix profile symlink
>>> forest on the target system.  Instead I build a profile locally (with
>>> the “guix shell” trick above), copy it to the remote with “guix copy
>>> --to=remote /gnu/store/…-profile”, and then link that profile to a fixed
>>> location on the remote system.
>>>
>>> I would like to change this workflow so that I can benefit from roll
>>> backs without having to manually mess with symlinks.
>>>
>>> What do you think about changing “guix package” and/or “guix copy” to
>>> better support deployment of remote profiles?
>>
>> I like the use case, but perhaps it'd be best implemented via hooking
>> 'guix home' configs with 'operating-system' ?  So you could say, for
>> this user, I want the following packages and services installed?
>>
>> Would that work for your use case?
>
> No, because on the remote I don’t have Guix System.
>
> It would still be useful, but not for this use case.

I see.  Then your suggestion to extend 'guix package' to be able to
install a profile from a store profile sounds useful, or perhaps a new
'guix deploy-profile' (or a better name / sub-command?) that would
automate the copy and installation in one step.

-- 
Thanks,
Maxim