I don't understand profiles and directories

I don't understand profiles and directories

[HiPhish]

Hello everyone,

I am running Kubuntu 18.04 with Guix as my other package manager. I originally 
installed it when Guix was still in version 0.15 and I ran in a bunch of 
trouble when I tried updating to 0.16. I am still not sure I updated properly.

From what I understand, Guix works as follows: packages are "installed" in the 
store, which is a directory that has separate directories for each package. 
This allows users to have different versions of the same package installed at 
the same time, no two packages will interfere with each other, since each one 
has its own subdirectory in the store.

This however does not make packages available to the user, so this is where 
profiles come in. A profile is a directory which contains symlinks to the actual 
store items. So if I want to run "foo-bin" it first has to be built and placed 
in the store, and then Guix will symlink everything into my profile. I also 
need to set some environment variables so that my system will know where to 
search. If foo-bin depends on libbar, then libbar will be installed into the 
store as well, but it will not be symlinked into the profile because I did not 
request it explicitly. Everything correct so far?

Here is my first question: where is this profile and which environment variables 
do I need to set? There is the directory `~/.guix-profile`, so I assume that's 
my "default profile". When I ran `guix pull` it did not update my Guix binary, 
As per the Guix Pull manual, I first had to add

    export PATH="$HOME/.config/guix/current/bin:$PATH"
    export INFOPATH="$HOME/.config/guix/current/share/info:$INFOPATH"

to my `~/.profile` file. Is `$HOME/.config/guix/current` another profile? Is this 
the actual profile I should be using? Other parts of the manual instructed me 
to add

    source "$HOME/.guix-profile/etc/profile"
    export GUIX_LOCPATH="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/locale"
    export XDG_DATA_DIRS="$HOME/.guix-profile/share:${XDG_DATA_DIRS}"

as well. Is this the correct setup, or am I missing something? Because when I 
install a package (e.g. glibc-locales) I get the message

    The following environment variable definitions may be needed:
       export PATH="/home/username/.guix-profile/bin${PATH:+:}$PATH"
       export GUILE_LOAD_PATH="/home/username/.guix-profile/share/guile/site/
2.2${GUILE_LOAD_PATH:+:}$GUILE_LOAD_PATH"
       export GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH="/home/username/.guix-profile/lib/guile/
2.2/site-ccache:/home/username/.guix-profile/share/guile/site/2.2$
{GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH:+:}$GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH"

and running `guix --version` shows me 0.15 again. So something seems to be 
amiss here.

Re: I don't understand profiles and directories

[Ricardo Wurmus]

HiPhish <hiphish@posteo.de> writes:

> Is `$HOME/.config/guix/current` another profile?

Yes.  It is the profile that “guix pull” uses to install Guix and
nothing more than that.

>     source "$HOME/.guix-profile/etc/profile"

This sets all environment variables that Guix suggests to set when you
install packages.

>     export GUIX_LOCPATH="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/locale"

On a foreign distro you need this, yes.

>     export XDG_DATA_DIRS="$HOME/.guix-profile/share:${XDG_DATA_DIRS}"

You don’t need this as it will be set by sourcing etc/profile if
necessary.  (Guix would have added it to etc/profile if it was required.)

>     The following environment variable definitions may be needed:
>        export PATH="/home/username/.guix-profile/bin${PATH:+:}$PATH"
>        export GUILE_LOAD_PATH="/home/username/.guix-profile/share/guile/site/
> 2.2${GUILE_LOAD_PATH:+:}$GUILE_LOAD_PATH"
>        export GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH="/home/username/.guix-profile/lib/guile/
> 2.2/site-ccache:/home/username/.guix-profile/share/guile/site/2.2$
> {GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH:+:}$GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH"

You can ignore this when you’re using Bash and you’re source’ing
$GUIX_PROFILE/etc/profile, because that file will contain all of these
recommendations.

> and running `guix --version` shows me 0.15 again.

What “guix” are you using?  What does “which guix” tell you?

--
Ricardo

Re: I don't understand profiles and directories

[HiPhish]

Hello Ricardo,

I have logged out and back in just to be sure everything is reset.

> What “guix” are you using?  What does “which guix” tell you?
When I run `guix --version` I get "guix (GNU Guix) 0.15.0-5.1d0be47" (and the 
usual copyright boilerplate of course). `which guix` prints "guix (GNU Guix) 
0.15.0-5.1d0be47". Should I change my `.profile` file to be like this instead?

    source "$HOME/.guix-profile/etc/profile"
    export GUIX_LOCPATH="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/locale"
    export PATH="$HOME/.config/guix/current/bin:$PATH"
    export INFOPATH="$HOME/.config/guix/current/share/info:$INFOPATH"

I.e. first source the Guix profile, which will add itself to the `$PATH`, and 
then add the path to the other profile.

Re: I don't understand profiles and directories

[Ricardo Wurmus]

HiPhish <hiphish@posteo.de> writes:

> `which guix` prints "guix (GNU Guix) 0.15.0-5.1d0be47".

I don’t think so.  It should print a file name.


> Should I change my `.profile` file to be like this instead?
>
>     source "$HOME/.guix-profile/etc/profile"
>     export GUIX_LOCPATH="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/locale"
>     export PATH="$HOME/.config/guix/current/bin:$PATH"
>     export INFOPATH="$HOME/.config/guix/current/share/info:$INFOPATH"
>
> I.e. first source the Guix profile, which will add itself to the `$PATH`, and 
> then add the path to the other profile.

Yes.

-- 
Ricardo

Re: I don't understand profiles and directories

[HiPhish]

On Saturday, 19 January 2019 18:05:03 CET you wrote:
> I don’t think so.  It should print a file name.
The message must have cut off, there was a full file path into `/gnu/
store/...`.

> > Should I change my `.profile` file to be like this instead?
> > 
> >     source "$HOME/.guix-profile/etc/profile"
> >     export GUIX_LOCPATH="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/locale"
> >     export PATH="$HOME/.config/guix/current/bin:$PATH"
> >     export INFOPATH="$HOME/.config/guix/current/share/info:$INFOPATH"
> > 
> > I.e. first source the Guix profile, which will add itself to the `$PATH`,
> > and then add the path to the other profile.
> 
> Yes.
OK, now it seems to work. Just to re-iterate, the Guix binary I'm going to 
invoke from the command line (`guix`) comes from this profile `~/.config/guix/
current/`, while all my packages are in the `~/.guix-profile` profile, correct? 
This means that the Guix binary from `~/.config/guix/current/` shadows the one 
from `~/.guix-profile`.

My complete `~/.profile` file now contains

    source "$HOME/.guix-profile/etc/profile"
    export GUIX_LOCPATH="$HOME/.guix-profile/lib/locale"
    export PATH="$HOME/.config/guix/current/bin:$PATH"
    export INFOPATH="$HOME/.config/guix/current/share/info:$INFOPATH"
    # SSL certificates (after installing 'nss-certs')
    export SSL_CERT_DIR="$HOME/.guix-profile/etc/ssl/certs"
    export SSL_CERT_FILE="$HOME/.guix-profile/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt"
    export GIT_SSL_CAINFO="$SSL_CERT_FILE"

and `which guix` prints

    /home/username/.config/guix/current/bin/guix

Re: I don't understand profiles and directories

[Ricardo Wurmus]

HiPhish <hiphish@posteo.de> writes:

> On Saturday, 19 January 2019 18:05:03 CET you wrote:
>> I don’t think so.  It should print a file name.
> The message must have cut off, there was a full file path into `/gnu/
> store/...`.

That’s not correct.  This indicates that the GUIX_PROFILE variable is
not exported.

> Just to re-iterate, the Guix binary I'm going to 
> invoke from the command line (`guix`) comes from this profile `~/.config/guix/
> current/`, while all my packages are in the `~/.guix-profile` profile,
> correct?

Yes.

> This means that the Guix binary from `~/.config/guix/current/` shadows the one 
> from `~/.guix-profile`.

There shouldn’t be any “guix” package in ~/.guix-profile.

>
> My complete `~/.profile` file now contains
>
>     source "$HOME/.guix-profile/etc/profile"

I’d replace this with:

    export GUIX_PROFILE=$HOME/.guix-profile
    source $GUIX_PROFILE/etc/profile

This ensures that the variables won’t point to specific store items but
rather to the *current* generation (even when you upgrade).

> and `which guix` prints
>
>     /home/username/.config/guix/current/bin/guix

Good!

-- 
Ricardo

Re: I don't understand profiles and directories

[HiPhish]

On Saturday, 19 January 2019 22:00:20 CET you wrote:
> > This means that the Guix binary from `~/.config/guix/current/` shadows the
> > one from `~/.guix-profile`.
> 
> There shouldn’t be any “guix” package in ~/.guix-profile.
Here is what I have:

    $ cd ~/.guix-profile/bin
    $ ls | grep guix
    guix
    guix-daemon

    $ file guix guix-daemon 
    guix: symbolic link to /gnu/store/vv1kkj9aqpv1akk7l7vp2kkd695wgxcr 
guix-0.16.0-8.7ba2b27/bin/guix
    guix-daemon: symbolic link to /gnu/store/vv1kkj9aqpv1akk7l7vp2kkd695wgxcr-
guix-0.16.0-8.7ba2b27/bin/guix-daemon

    $ ./guix --version
    guix (GNU Guix) 0.16.0-8.7ba2b27

    $ guix --version
    guix (GNU Guix) 8d09e97b8cdde9dcceb2353112613a3fee63426d

So both are symlinks to items in the store, and they are distinct from the 
Guix that's in my $PATH.

> > My complete `~/.profile` file now contains
> > 
> >     source "$HOME/.guix-profile/etc/profile"
> 
> I’d replace this with:
> 
>     export GUIX_PROFILE=$HOME/.guix-profile
>     source $GUIX_PROFILE/etc/profile
> 
> This ensures that the variables won’t point to specific store items but
> rather to the *current* generation (even when you upgrade).
OK, got it.

Re: I don't understand profiles and directories

[Ricardo Wurmus]

HiPhish <hiphish@posteo.de> writes:

> On Saturday, 19 January 2019 22:00:20 CET you wrote:
>> > This means that the Guix binary from `~/.config/guix/current/` shadows the
>> > one from `~/.guix-profile`.
>>
>> There shouldn’t be any “guix” package in ~/.guix-profile.
> Here is what I have: […]

What I meant is: you shouldn’t install “guix” with Guix because you will
necessarily end up with an older version of Guix (namely the previous
version that is available though the current version).

Use “guix pull” only to avoid these problems.

--
Ricardo

Re: I don't understand profiles and directories

[HiPhish]

On Sunday, 20 January 2019 00:31:33 CET you wrote:
> What I meant is: you shouldn’t install “guix” with Guix because you will
> necessarily end up with an older version of Guix (namely the previous
> version that is available though the current version).
> 
> Use “guix pull” only to avoid these problems.
> 
> --
> Ricardo
OK, got it. Should I run `guix package --remove=guix` to get rid of that Guix 
in `~/.guix-profile/bin` or is it normal to have that one in there?