add a substitute server and thoughts for improvement

add a substitute server and thoughts for improvement

[Gottfried]

Would somebody be so kind and show me this part of his /etc/config.scm

file in order to know where and what I should put there, so that I can

add "bordeaus-guix.gnu.org as a substitute serve?

I checked the manual, but I am not able to do it on my own.


In order not to loose electricity, (which is not good for the 
environment), time (makes a lot of pressure) and hope (guix should 
create hope) when after a "guix package -u" the substitute is not built 
or fails, and my computer has to compile the source, which takes a long 
time,

could not a developer of guix add options:

1. that we are warned about it (that a substitue is not available at the 
moment)
2. that there are options to cancel upgrading one ore more packages
3. that approx. so much time it needs to build the source of a package 
(if that is possible)
4. a question, if I want to use a different substitute server, and if yes
5. an info if on that different substitute server this substitute is 
available,
6. and if not, to cancel this ore more specific package to upgrade.

Guixers could still add other options, which I am not aware of it at the 
moment.

Do guix developers read our questions or do we have to send it to a 
specific email address?

Gottfried






Gottfried

Re: add a substitute server and thoughts for improvement

[pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)]

Hello Gottfried.

On Sun, Apr 10, 2022 at 09:50:31AM +0000, Gottfried wrote:
> 
> Would somebody be so kind and show me this part of his /etc/config.scm
> 
> file in order to know where and what I should put there, so that I can
> 
> add "bordeaus-guix.gnu.org as a substitute serve?
> 
> I checked the manual, but I am not able to do it on my own.

It is likely that you already have enabled bordeaux.  Using a
substitute server requires two things:

That guix-daemon or alternatively each guix command be started with
--substitute-urls='https://url_of_substitute_server'.  bordeaux is
enabled by default here according to the manual.  (Although it can be
disabled in config.scm.)

That the substitute server is authorized, i.e. that /etc/guix/acl
contains its public key.  For bordeaux, that is

(public-key
 (ecc
  (curve Ed25519)
  (q #7D602902D3A2DBB83F8A0FB98602A754C5493B0B778C8D1DD4E0F41DE14DE34F#)
  )
 )

It is likely that your /etc/guix/acl contains these lines already.  If
not, doing a full text search for bordeaux (i.e. typing /bordeaux in
`info guix.de`) says that the lines can be added by running as root
the command

guix archive --authorize < \
     ~root/.config/guix/current/share/guix/bordeaux.guix.gnu.org.pub

However this assumes that you have run `guix pull` as root before,
otherwise the path needs to be changed to your user name

sudo guix archive --authorize < \
     ~yourusername/.config/guix/current/share/guix/bordeaux.guix.gnu.org.pub


> could not a developer of guix add options:
> 
> 1. that we are warned about it (that a substitue is not available at the
> moment)
> 2. that there are options to cancel upgrading one ore more packages
> 3. that approx. so much time it needs to build the source of a package (if
> that is possible)
> 4. a question, if I want to use a different substitute server, and if yes
> 5. an info if on that different substitute server this substitute is
> available,
> 6. and if not, to cancel this ore more specific package to upgrade.
> 
> Guixers could still add other options, which I am not aware of it at the
> moment.

These are difficult questions and similar questions have been asked in
the past, for example

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2021-11/msg00129.html

I think there is no consensus on what this should look like.


> Do guix developers read our questions or do we have to send it to a specific
> email address?
> 
> Gottfried

Some developers read help-guix, some read only guix-devel, some read
the #guix IRC chat, and there is too much mail to read everything.

Regards,
Florian

add a substitute server and thoughts for improvement

[Nathan Dehnel]

I suggest checking out "guix weather", "guix upgrade --dry-run", and
"guix upgrade --do-not-upgrade=<package>"