From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: swedebugia Subject: Re: Review of pros and cons of package managers including Guix Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2018 17:11:20 +0100 Message-ID: References: <2de6a0a3-3d2b-caf5-4c72-37e9eafdb28f@freenet.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:60097) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gKmuJ-0007C7-GH for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 08 Nov 2018 11:11:48 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gKmuG-0001nB-96 for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 08 Nov 2018 11:11:47 -0500 Received: from mx1.riseup.net ([198.252.153.129]:39649) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gKmuF-0001hG-Vr for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 08 Nov 2018 11:11:44 -0500 In-Reply-To: Content-Language: en-US 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: Adam Van Ymeren , t_w_@freenet.de, guix-devel@gnu.org Hi On 2018-11-08 16:31, Adam Van Ymeren wrote: > On November 8, 2018 4:43:23 AM EST, Thorsten Wilms wrote: >> On 08/11/2018 10.09, swedebugia wrote: >>> https://www.slant.co/topics/344/~best-linux-package-managers >>> >>> Insights from the Guix-section: >>> >>> 4 pros: (missing the roll-back feature) see link. >>> >>> 1 cons: >>> >>> "Cannot handle filetypes that have different semantics across >> different >>> versions >>> While the functional approach that Guix takes is great for sandboxing >>> binary artifacts of packages, it seriously lacks any power in >> handling >>> configuration files or user data. It's difficult to upgrade and >>> downgrade files where semantics and syntax can change between >> versions." >>> Do you agree with this critique? >> >> The best handling of configuration files I got to know is offered by >> Debian, which, if a package comes with a new configuration file, asks >> what to do about it. Better than nothing, but still not exactly a good >> user experience. There quite simply isn't the right level of >> granularity >> and encoding of intentions given with plain text configuration files. > Guix is in a position to do better than most in this area. I love how most services in Guix are configured via s-expressions which then generate the appropriate plain text config from that. Don't have to learn a new syntax for every service. > > It also means that configurations are usable data in the Guix world, allowing us to automatically upgrade configs to new syntax if a package decides to change it. I totally agree! The Scheme s-expressions was a somewhat steep learning curve but now having passed it and beginning to understand the error messages from the Guile IT IS AWESOME. 1 powerful extension language to rule all the packages and configuration files :D I keep track of my config.scm with git and it is simple to see the changes over time as I customize and tweak things. I wish Guix had existed when I started with GNU/Linux 15 years ago. I began with Xandros and then moved on to Debian, Ubuntu and then Parabola. -- Cheers Swedebugia