Running make inside a Guix Container From Outside

Running make inside a Guix Container From Outside

[jgart]

Hi Guixers,

I started making a quick bash script that started like this:

```
#!/bin/sh
git clone https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git guix-3000
cd guix-3000
guix environment guix --container
./bootstrap
./configure --local-statedir=/var
time make
exit
print "ready for hacking"
```

One of the problems with the above script is that the `guix environment guix --container` blocks `./bootstrap` etc...

I'm thinking of rewriting the script in python or guile using some form of async to solve that issue if needed.
Once `guix environment guix --container` is unblocked by me killing the process manually, 
the following commands run outside the container and fail. This is expected.

So, I ran `guix environment guix --container` in one terminal and opened another terminal to see if I can
first test running commands in containers from the "outside" with `guix container exec`.

I tried `guix container exec PID "./boostrap"` and it didn't fail. In the other terminal running the

container I looked to see if there was any change to container's directory structure and there was none.

I also ran `guix container exec PID "./configure --localstatedir=/var"` and
`guix container exec PID "time make"`.

Am I misusing `guix container exec`? 

Is it currently possible to run arbitrary commands in guix containers from outside guix containers?

all best,
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Re: Running make inside a Guix Container From Outside

[zimoun]

Hi,

On Mon, 6 Sept 2021 at 18:58, jgart <jgart@dismail.de> wrote:

> ```
> #!/bin/sh
> git clone https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git guix-3000
> cd guix-3000
> guix environment guix --container
> ./bootstrap
> ./configure --local-statedir=/var
> time make
> exit
> print "ready for hacking"
> ```

Instead, I would run something like

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
#!/bin/sh

guix environment -C guix --ad-hoc bash -- bash -c \
     './bootstrap && ./configure --localstatedir=/var && time make'
guix environment -C guix
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Well, this creates 2 temporary profiles.  If you want to save some
time, you can also pass '--ad-hoc bash' to the second environment even
if you do not you it.

Note that instead of '--ad-hoc', I would use '-m manifest.scm'
containing all the useful tools (Git, Emacs, etc.)

> Am I misusing `guix container exec`?

I do not know, I do not really use "guix container". :-)  Well, I
consider such subcommand as experimental. ;-)


Hope that helps,
simon

Re: Running make inside a Guix Container From Outside

[jgart]

On Tue, 07 Sep 2021 17:47:28 +0200 zimoun <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hope that helps,
> simon

Thank you Simon! That solves it for me. :)

all best,

jgart