From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Ricardo Wurmus Subject: Re: Managing user environments Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2019 18:04:33 +0200 Message-ID: <87h8747rou.fsf@elephly.net> References: <1D6F50BE-4430-4B1C-8F71-0AF1D6D84648@lepiller.eu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:54881) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.86_2) (envelope-from ) id 1hs88g-00061X-Ic for guix-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 29 Jul 2019 12:04:43 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1hs88f-0007mn-Bh for guix-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 29 Jul 2019 12:04:42 -0400 Received: from sender4-of-o53.zoho.com ([136.143.188.53]:21338) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1hs88f-0007kJ-1A for guix-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 29 Jul 2019 12:04:41 -0400 In-reply-to: <1D6F50BE-4430-4B1C-8F71-0AF1D6D84648@lepiller.eu> 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" To: Julien Lepiller Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org Hi Julien, > A few months ago, I created a new channel called the guix home manager > whose purpose is to allow to manage user environments in a similar way > to services. > > The channel is about managing dotfiles. I think configuration should > be managed in a stateless fashion, and that's what guix is good at. I think this is a very good idea and I=E2=80=99d love to see more integrati= on with Guix. > You can find the current code here: https://framagit.org/tyreunom/guix-ho= me-manager I=E2=80=99m not convinced that a package definition is the most appropriate abstraction to use here, because we only really care about the builder. Using a profile is probably a good idea, though, because of roll-backs etc. Much like =E2=80=9Cguix pull=E2=80=9D builds a profile under the hood= , the home manager could do the same. Other ideas I mentioned on IRC were: - integration with =E2=80=9Cguix system=E2=80=9D and/or manifests; running = =E2=80=9Cguix package --profile=E2=80=A6=E2=80=9D is probably not the most convenient interface. - storage of secrets. Can we (or: does it make sense to) encrypt the generated configuration files and use a PAM service to automatically unlock and relocate them upon login? > I still have some doubts about it, whether it's in the scope for guix > or not, whether it actually scales, and such. Any opinion is > welcome. Again, would you like to see it, or a modified version of > it,in guix itself or should it be kept in a separate channel? I=E2=80=99d love to see a variant of this become part of Guix proper in the future. It shouldn=E2=80=99t be forced upon users, of course, but I think = it would be great to offer this as an opt-in feature, much like stricter package management with manifests is opt-in. Thank you for sharing this! -- Ricardo