guix build--rounds=N does not behave as expected

guix build--rounds=N does not behave as expected

[swedebugia]

Hi

Today I took a look at 
https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/packages/reproducibility.html

I then proceeded to try building some of the packages with issues.

I failed at first.

Why?
Because my goal was to build ONLY the offending package, not all of its 
build dependencies (specifying --no-substitutes results in the latter).

How?
$ guix build tor --rounds=2
substitute: updating substitutes from 'https://ci.guix.info'... 100.0%
substitute: updating substitutes from 'https://ci.guix.info'... 100.0%
3.5 MB will be downloaded:
    /gnu/store/7k793vhnv6mk6fhrg493gfby4lyy1107-tor-0.3.4.9
The following graft will be made:
    /gnu/store/z3y6kb1j0g5mkkbrzanf8jqs0bimiyfq-tor-0.3.4.9.drv
substituting /gnu/store/7k793vhnv6mk6fhrg493gfby4lyy1107-tor-0.3.4.9...
downloading from 
https://ci.guix.info/nar/gzip/7k793vhnv6mk6fhrg493gfby4lyy1107-tor-0.3.4.9...
  tor-0.3.4.9  3.4MiB               1.3MiB/s 00:03 [##################] 
100.0%

applying 1 graft for 
/gnu/store/z3y6kb1j0g5mkkbrzanf8jqs0bimiyfq-tor-0.3.4.9.drv...
grafting '/gnu/store/7k793vhnv6mk6fhrg493gfby4lyy1107-tor-0.3.4.9' -> 
'/gnu/store/2ri08yiksan4gk7nqjxj9vawq8gmp6ip-tor-0.3.4.9'...
applying 1 graft for 
/gnu/store/z3y6kb1j0g5mkkbrzanf8jqs0bimiyfq-tor-0.3.4.9.drv...
grafting '/gnu/store/7k793vhnv6mk6fhrg493gfby4lyy1107-tor-0.3.4.9' -> 
'/gnu/store/2ri08yiksan4gk7nqjxj9vawq8gmp6ip-tor-0.3.4.9'...
successfully built 
/gnu/store/z3y6kb1j0g5mkkbrzanf8jqs0bimiyfq-tor-0.3.4.9.drv
/gnu/store/2ri08yiksan4gk7nqjxj9vawq8gmp6ip-tor-0.3.4.9
egil@parabola:~$ guix build tor --rounds=2 --no-grafts
/gnu/store/7k793vhnv6mk6fhrg493gfby4lyy1107-tor-0.3.4.9

I tried also to specify --no-substitutes AFTER having run guix 
environment tor to make sure I had the substitutes of the build 
dependencies, but I failed anyway.

Did I misunderstand something?

Now it worked! I specified --check and --no-grafts and it began to do as 
I said.

I really think we should signal a helpful error to the user if only 
--rounds=N is specified and --check is missing.

-- 
Cheers Swedebugia

Re: guix build--rounds=N does not behave as expected

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi swedebugia,

“guix build --rounds=N” builds the package N times if it hasn’t already
been built.  With grafts enabled this would be the graft derivation,
which isn’t very useful.

If the package has previously been built, however, it won’t rebuild the
package.  That’s why we have “--check”.

> I really think we should signal a helpful error to the user if only
> --rounds=N is specified and --check is missing.

Using “--rounds” without “--check” is correct.  There should not be an
error or a warning in that case.

--
Ricardo

Re: guix build--rounds=N does not behave as expected

[Arun Isaac]

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> “guix build --rounds=N” builds the package N times if it hasn’t already
> been built.  With grafts enabled this would be the graft derivation,
> which isn’t very useful.
>
> If the package has previously been built, however, it won’t rebuild the
> package.  That’s why we have “--check”.

I think the above information, especially the part about the --check
flag, should go into the manual under "Submitting Patches". Currently,
there is no mention of the --check flag.

WDYT?

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Re: guix build--rounds=N does not behave as expected

[swedebugia]

On 2018-12-31 13:27, Ricardo Wurmus wrote:
> 
> Hi swedebugia,
> 
> “guix build --rounds=N” builds the package N times if it hasn’t already
> been built.  With grafts enabled this would be the graft derivation,
> which isn’t very useful.
> 
> If the package has previously been built, however, it won’t rebuild the
> package.  That’s why we have “--check”.
> 
>> I really think we should signal a helpful error to the user if only
>> --rounds=N is specified and --check is missing.
> 
> Using “--rounds” without “--check” is correct.  There should not be an
> error or a warning in that case.

Rounds does not seem to work.
E.g. I ran this:
$ guix build automake --check --rounds=2

and the result was this:
phase `compress-documentation' succeeded after 0.1 seconds
/gnu/store/k7gymsw2xfp20fv30x5niilwnxpj2d2k-automake-1.16.1

I think this is a bug.
Rounds should ignore the item in store and swallow check so that it does 
what the user expects.

Right now it seems that check swallows rounds and rounds alone fail 
because the item is already in the store.

Alternatively I would like that guix ask me if I want to build the 
rounds EVEN THOUGH it is in the store. But that would be less nice.

-- 
Cheers Swedebugia