Modify system behavior after reconfigure

Modify system behavior after reconfigure

[Jone]

To run 'reconfigure' for minor changes to the system configuration
is inconvenient. For example, this option:

  (sudoers-file (local-file (config-file "/etc/sudoers")))

provides an easy way to make changes at any time. But what about mcron?
The user has a directory ~/.config/cron, but it cannot run system-wide
jobs. So the old way with /etc/cron.d/ still remains comfortable: let's
say I just don't know what tasks I'll need in the future, and add them
one by one - and each time after that run reconfigure.. no way!

I think the question is obvious?
(Forgive me for my bad English, but mostly I only read in this
language, not write).

Re: Modify system behavior after reconfigure

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Jone <yeger9@gmail.com> writes:

> To run 'reconfigure' for minor changes to the system configuration
> is inconvenient.

This is a feature as it allows you to roll back to previous versions.
You can be sure that each configuration is fully captured by your system
configuration file.

Reconfiguring does not take a lot of time when there have been only
minor changes.  It only takes a couple of seconds.

--
Ricardo

GPG: BCA6 89B6 3655 3801 C3C6  2150 197A 5888 235F ACAC
https://elephly.net

Re: Modify system behavior after reconfigure

[Jone]

Ricardo writes:

> Reconfiguring does not take a lot of time when there have been only
> minor changes.  It only takes a couple of seconds.

Well, let's just say, this is not always true. The last time was a full
compilation of Icecat from source (!) "It only takes a couple of
hours" ;) 

Re: Modify system behavior after reconfigure

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Jone <yeger9@gmail.com> writes:

> Ricardo writes:
>
>> Reconfiguring does not take a lot of time when there have been only
>> minor changes.  It only takes a couple of seconds.
>
> Well, let's just say, this is not always true. The last time was a full
> compilation of Icecat from source (!) "It only takes a couple of
> hours" ;) 

Only if you change the version of Guix in between reconfiguration or if
you add packages to the global list of packages (which is not where I’d
put browsers) for which there are no substitutes.

-- 
Ricardo

GPG: BCA6 89B6 3655 3801 C3C6  2150 197A 5888 235F ACAC
https://elephly.net

Re: Modify system behavior after reconfigure

[Jone]

Ricardo writes:

> Only if you change the version of Guix in between reconfiguration
> or ..

This! I run 'guix pull' every week.
And how do I act? 
1. Run 'guix pull' once a month.
2. Disable internet connection before reconfigure (in case I only need
to update system configuration, without downloading anything from
Internet) 
What "best practicals" exist?

Re: Modify system behavior after reconfigure

[Chris Marusich]

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Jone <yeger9@gmail.com> writes:

> 2. Disable internet connection before reconfigure (in case I only need
> to update system configuration, without downloading anything from

If you are sure that you do not need to check for substitutes, you can
also try running with --no-substitutes.  However, in most situations,
the overall process will be faster if you omit --no-substitutes.

-- 
Chris

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Re: Modify system behavior after reconfigure

[Andreas Enge]

On Sat, Mar 17, 2018 at 04:06:35PM +0300, Jone wrote:
> Ricardo writes:
> > Reconfiguring does not take a lot of time when there have been only
> > minor changes.  It only takes a couple of seconds.
> Well, let's just say, this is not always true. The last time was a full
> compilation of Icecat from source (!) "It only takes a couple of
> hours" ;) 

Ricardo is right if you do not make other, *unrelated* changes - of course
updating icecat may trigger a rebuild of icecat.

So in the case of only changing some configuration items, one would need
to make sure to use the exact same copy of guix as for the previous
configuration. Either one should not do a "guix pull" in between, or one
can keep a git checkout on the same branch or commit and do a
"./pre-inst-env guix system reconfigure...".

Then updating everything can be done at a separate occasion (over night,
for instance, or after icecat has been built on the substitute server).

Also, this problem can be circumvented by not having packages in the *system*
definition, but only in *user* profiles. This decouples updates of single
packages from updates of the system configuration.

Andreas

Re: Modify system behavior after reconfigure

[Jone]

Andreas writes:

> Also, this problem can be circumvented by not having packages in the
> *system* definition, but only in *user* profiles. This decouples
> updates of single packages from updates of the system configuration.

Yes, I also came to this: absolute minimum of packages in the system
config (I again remember Gentoo and advices about @world set).

And mcron.. total, I think that I should write the service itself that
reads the definition of jobs from /etc/...

Re: Modify system behavior after reconfigure

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello,

Jone <yeger9@gmail.com> skribis:

> (Forgive me for my bad English, but mostly I only read in this
> language, not write).

If you want, you can write in one of the other languages that developers
speak:

  https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/contact/

Ludo’.

Re: Modify system behavior after reconfigure

[Jone]

> If you want, you can write in one of the other languages that
> developers speak:

Хорошо, Ludo’, я пишу на своем языке. У меня куча вопросов, но к
сожалению мануалы GNU не являются "быстрорастворимыми". А кроме
мануалов любая другая документация с примерами ("howto") отсутствует! 

Re: Modify system behavior after reconfigure

[Oleg Pykhalov]

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Привет Jone,

Jone <yeger9@gmail.com> writes:

> У меня куча вопросов, но к сожалению мануалы GNU не являются
> "быстрорастворимыми".

Не бойтесь задавать вопросы здесь или IRC канале #guix на freenode.  :-)

Если документация нуждается в дополении или разъяснении какой-то темы,
пожалуйста скажите от этом!

> А кроме мануалов любая другая документация с примерами ("howto")
> отсутствует!

Документация в форматах ‘texinfo’ не похожа на формат ‘wiki’.  Страницы
‘wiki’ крупных дистрибутивов GNU/Linux чаще всего являются “howto”
сделать X с помощью Y.  Однако такой подход не дает знаний о X и Y.

Если посмотреть на NixOS, то у них были официальные страницы ‘wiki’, но
они пришли к выводу описанному мной выше и прекратили ее поддержку.

Oleg.

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Re: Modify system behavior after reconfigure

[Alex Kost]

Jone (2018-03-20 23:12 +0300) wrote:

>> If you want, you can write in one of the other languages that
>> developers speak:
>
> Хорошо, Ludo’, я пишу на своем языке. У меня куча вопросов, но к
> сожалению мануалы GNU не являются "быстрорастворимыми". А кроме
> мануалов любая другая документация с примерами ("howto") отсутствует!

Действительно, никакой другой официальной документации кроме мануала
нет, и это, в общем, политика Guix: "если что-то нуждается в
документировании, то это должно быть в мануале" (ну, что-то в этом
духе). Так что, как сказал Олег, если вам что-либо не понятно,
пожалуйста, спрашивайте и не стесняйтесь сообщить, если считаете, что
что-нибудь в мануале должно быть улучшено/исправлено/дополнено.

Создание же отдельных "howto" или wiki не планируется, хотя есть
несколько неофициальных источников, например:

https://gitlab.com/rain1/guix-wiki/wikis/home
https://gitlab.com/pjotrp/guix-notes


Concise translation: Jone said that the manual is not an easy read and
unfortunately there are no HOWTOs.  Oleg and I answered that the manual
is indeed the only official source of documentation and people are
always welcome to improve it in any way.

-- 
Alex