From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: myglc2 Subject: Re: GuixSD installation: binary vs source packages Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2017 21:01:39 -0500 Message-ID: <8660jzav0c.fsf@gmail.com> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:39126) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1chRgA-0001ip-NU for help-guix@gnu.org; Fri, 24 Feb 2017 21:01:47 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1chRg7-0001x1-M4 for help-guix@gnu.org; Fri, 24 Feb 2017 21:01:46 -0500 Received: from mail-qk0-x236.google.com ([2607:f8b0:400d:c09::236]:34193) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1chRg7-0001wN-IW for help-guix@gnu.org; Fri, 24 Feb 2017 21:01:43 -0500 Received: by mail-qk0-x236.google.com with SMTP id s186so33193243qkb.1 for ; Fri, 24 Feb 2017 18:01:41 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: (Alex Vestgaard's message of "Fri, 24 Feb 2017 13:39:23 -0500") List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-guix-bounces+gcggh-help-guix=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Help-Guix" To: Alex Vestgaard Cc: "help-guix@gnu.org" On 02/24/2017 at 13:39 Alex Vestgaard writes: > Hi, > > I'm trying to migrate all my machines to GuixSD, which I believe will > make some complicated data processing pipelines much easier to deploy > and reproduce. > > I have one question regarding the installation process, which other > people on #guix could not answer. How can I determine what packages > will be installed from source and compiled vs just binaries fetched > from Hydra? In my practical experience of running a GuixSD headless server for the last 12 months, if you use 'guix pull', which is effectively a rolling release, there is no way to tell. It depends on whether hydra has the substitute you want, how responsive it is, the version you are installing, etc. I run Debian on an identical server, and the Debian updates typically take 1/10th the time of a GuixSD update. And the Debian updates inspire confidence in a way the GuixSD updates do not. This used to bother me, but I got over it ;-) I mostly use a Guix git source checkout and "re-"build guix from time to time. I find, as far as my server goes, that I take a hit each time I git pull and build Guix, and then the incremental installs of packages are pretty quick. But I am doing this primarily because I am interested in the Guix source and being able to patch guix packages, etc, not because of update speed. If you don't care about the source, I think you should probably use guix pull. I have 3.4GHz, 8 CPUs and 30 MBPS internet and in practice my updates don't take more than 5-10 min, whether I git pull and build from source or guix pull, so it is not really a big deal in either case. I am running a headless server, and not building a bunch of desktop packages, which may make a difference in all this. You can keep all of your machines on the same release by using a git checkout, and share the store among them from a local server. This would dramatically speed things up. If you are using guix pull, it will again depend on whether substitutes in your local cache is relevant. > I tried the --dry-run for guix package -i and guix build, but I didn't > find this very informative. > > Lengthy compilation took me by surprise twice: > > i) When I first started installing GuixSD, Guix got compiled. I > expected a binary would be fetched instead. The problem here, as I understand it, is that, by the time a Guix Noob is using the install image the substitutes for that version of guix may have "aged off" of hydra. I believe hydra's capacity has been improved so this situation may be improved. > ii) When installing icecat. I thought in principle there were binary > substitutes for all packages in Hydra. > I would appreciate if anyone could clarify these. Let me just say that I have found GuixSD to be very solid. There are occasional glitches with newly ported packages, which is to be expected. Compared to Debian 8, and practically speaking, as daily drivers, my GuixSD machine has slower updates and the GuixSD packages are more up-to-date, which is more important to me. So I plan to switch the Debian machine over to GuixSD. HTH - George