Re: Guix with Debian GNU/Linux

[Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name>]

On Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 11:21:55PM +0100, Ni* wrote:
> ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès) writes:
> 
> > Ni* <niasterisk@grrlz.net> skribis:
> >
> >> From using GuixSD I know that as little files as possible should be
> >> created in /etc. When using Guix alone, is this still the recommended
> >> way of doing things?
> >
> > Most of the time, you can choose where to store config files, in /etc or
> > elsewhere.
> >
> >> What I need to know for a server environment is, if I install tor and
> >> serve non-exit tor relays, will the config be read from the location I
> >> am used to (/etc/tor/) or does it differ? (same about httpd/nginx, etc)
> >
> > Most programs allow you to choose which configuration file to use.  For
> > instance, one can run:
> >
> >   tor -f /path/to/torrc
> >
> > and Tor will pick its config file from there.  I think the same is true
> > of nginx and httpd.
> >
> I have to correct myself, as I confused tor configuration with
> GuixSD, where I have the impression it (tor) is configured in the
> system config.scm to some degree.
> Correction: debian to my knowledge (I don't have much in depth Debian
> experience, slackware forks, gentoo, archlinux, etc everything more used
> than Debian) runs with some /etc/init.d/* files + systemd combination.
> When I use Guix to just install packages, do I write
> systemd/debian-thing service/startup files, or am I confused by being
> exposed to Guix as GuixSD which runs dmd?

Yes, you won't have dmd on the Debian system. And in Jessie, the init.d
files are really just holdovers from Wheezy that are interpreted by
systemd. I presume the maintainers of those packages did not submit
systemd service files.

> >> What are things I should look for and be careful about? What can be
> >> removed from the hostsystem, what needs to stay?
> >
> > Compared to GuixSD, a couple of things need tweaking to work smoothly;
> > see <https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Application-Setup.html>.
> >
> > As to what to keep in the host distro, it’s up to you!
> >
> > In some cases, you’ll have to make a binary choice; for instance, if you
> > use Guile from Guix, you’ll have to use Guile packages (say, Guile-SSH,
> > Guile-JSON, etc.) from Guix as well since otherwise they would end up
> > loading different variants of libguile.so and libc.so.
> Okay, this makes sense. Thanks for the pointers.
> >
> >> Are guix updates handled the same way as they are done in GuixSD
> >> (guix pull ; guix package -u)?
> >
> > Yes.
> >
> > Out of curiosity, what are the technical reasons that led you to prefer
> > Guix-over-Debian rather than GuixSD, since you tried GuixSD already?
> >
> Simple (but detailed) answer:
> I host with IN-Berlin[1] on virtual servers, they only provide Debian.
> If I could explain to them how to deploy it for servers (maybe images
> for the hardware they run the vservers on would already be enough),
> I would be able to run GuixSD. One thing I did though was telling and
> explaining one of people responsible for IN-Berlin what Guix and GuixSD
> is. Maybe it will be possible at some time in the future, they are very
> friendly.
> I would however prefer dedicated servers by now, but in the Ruhrarea
> (Region in Germany, NRW) the choice of ISPs, DCs and otherwise Hosters
> is so big that I always end up realizing that I can do better things
> with my time and leave it be. If I would be in Berlin regulary,
> maintenance would be no problem with colocation with IN-Berlin. Or
> hosting with free.de here, but I would say they don't like to answer questions
> about colocation contracts, at least that's my sad past experience with
> them, it would be a 10 minute ride to free.de from here.
> 
> > Thanks,
> > Ludo’.
> 
> 1: Individual Network Berlin e.V. http://in-berlin.de
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> -- 
> ng/Ni*
> http://libertad.pw:8080
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