Guix in single-user mode (degenerated?)

Guix in single-user mode (degenerated?)

[Pjotr Prins]

Q1: How does single-user degenerated mode actually work? I suppose
'degenerated' refers to the fact that all packages have to be rebuilt
(non-binary install) and/or that it is single threaded? 

Q2: How do I use it?

Q3: Anyone using it right now?

There are situations where I can't get root - mostly on scientific
cluster environments. I don't think it is a priority, but it would be
a good to have if it works.

Pj.

Re: Guix in single-user mode (degenerated?)

[Ludovic Courtès]

Pjotr Prins <pjotr.public12@thebird.nl> skribis:

> Q1: How does single-user degenerated mode actually work? I suppose
> 'degenerated' refers to the fact that all packages have to be rebuilt
> (non-binary install) and/or that it is single threaded? 

I think you mean “degraded”, but there’s no such mode, where did you
read about it?  :-)

The last paragraph at
<http://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Build-Environment-Setup.html>
mentions use of the daemon by non-root users, and suggests that this is
the last resort.

> Q2: How do I use it?

guix-daemon --disable-chroot

> Q3: Anyone using it right now?

My guess is that it’s not widely used.

> There are situations where I can't get root - mostly on scientific
> cluster environments. I don't think it is a priority, but it would be
> a good to have if it works.

Yes, that’s an issue.  Unfortunately, users would sacrifice
reproducibility by running the daemon as non-root (and we would get
reports about builds that fail unexpectedly), and using a non-standard
store directory may also hit shebang length limits and so on.

So I think we must bribe a bunch of HPC sysadmins ;-), get experience
with real system-wide installations on such systems, and see what needs
to be adjusted.  Thanks to Ricardo and his lab we already have some
feedback: <http://elephly.net/posts/2015-04-17-gnu-guix.html>.

If you are in a position where you can experiment with such a setup,
your experience would be invaluable!

Ludo’.

Re: Guix in single-user mode (degenerated?)

[Pjotr Prins]

On Mon, Jun 01, 2015 at 09:56:42PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> > There are situations where I can't get root - mostly on scientific
> > cluster environments. I don't think it is a priority, but it would be
> > a good to have if it works.
> 
> Yes, that’s an issue.  Unfortunately, users would sacrifice
> reproducibility by running the daemon as non-root (and we would get
> reports about builds that fail unexpectedly), and using a non-standard
> store directory may also hit shebang length limits and so on.
> 
> So I think we must bribe a bunch of HPC sysadmins ;-), get experience
> with real system-wide installations on such systems, and see what needs
> to be adjusted.  Thanks to Ricardo and his lab we already have some
> feedback: <http://elephly.net/posts/2015-04-17-gnu-guix.html>.

It is a good writeup, indeed, and may help make a case. Somehow the
people who run clusters are not so enlightened.

> If you are in a position where you can experiment with such a setup,
> your experience would be invaluable!

I am not in a position to change things, but maybe others are. The
good news is that VMs are becoming more common and may drive change.
Give it another 5-10 years and I expect it to be less of an issue.

Pj.