From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: taylanbayirli@gmail.com (Taylan Ulrich =?utf-8?Q?Bay=C4=B1rl=C4=B1?=
	=?utf-8?Q?=2FKammer?=)
Subject: Re: Self-contained Guix tarball
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2015 15:34:20 +0200
Message-ID: <87h9sci6n7.fsf@taylan.uni.cx>
References: <20150410084651.GA23353@thebird.nl> <873848p5kd.fsf@gnu.org>
	<20150410131420.GB24509@thebird.nl> <87a8ydt8k8.fsf_-_@gnu.org>
	<871tjlxen6.fsf@gnu.org> <20150416053355.GD21015@thebird.nl>
	<87k2x9b061.fsf@gnu.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Return-path: <guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org>
Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:58810)
	by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71)
	(envelope-from <taylanbayirli@gmail.com>) id 1YjpMf-0003ls-VB
	for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 19 Apr 2015 09:34:26 -0400
Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71)
	(envelope-from <taylanbayirli@gmail.com>) id 1YjpMe-0004Fb-Ty
	for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 19 Apr 2015 09:34:25 -0400
In-Reply-To: <87k2x9b061.fsf@gnu.org> ("Ludovic
	\=\?utf-8\?Q\?Court\=C3\=A8s\=22'\?\=
	\=\?utf-8\?Q\?s\?\= message of "Sat, 18 Apr 2015 23:23:50 +0200")
List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution."
	<guix-devel.gnu.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/options/guix-devel>,
	<mailto:guix-devel-request@gnu.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel>
List-Post: <mailto:guix-devel@gnu.org>
List-Help: <mailto:guix-devel-request@gnu.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/guix-devel>,
	<mailto:guix-devel-request@gnu.org?subject=subscribe>
Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org
Sender: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org
To: Ludovic =?utf-8?Q?Court=C3=A8s?= <ludo@gnu.org>
Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org

ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Court=C3=A8s) writes:

> Pjotr Prins <pjotr.public12@thebird.nl> skribis:
>
>> BTW when Nix decided to go for a meta-database they lost something. I
>> know it has good reasons (performance mostly) but it took away the
>> self-containedness of packages. It would be nice just to be able to
>> copy/del packages and rebuild the meta information. Do we have
>> something like that?=20
>
> This part is the same as Nix.  The database is here to store meta-data
> about store items, notably the list of references found in a store item.
> Determining this list requires scanning all of the store item=E2=80=99s
> contents, which takes time proportional to the number/size of files it
> contains, so the database can hardly be avoided.

Just throwing this out there:

Would it be possible to bundle meta-data files together with store
items?

I guess one could in principle make each store item a directory with any
number of meta-data files plus the actual content of the store item (a
file or directory), but I suppose it would be too big an overhaul of the
design to make this worthwhile.

Taylan