Re: guix on a debian system (with packages from experimental) - recommended day to day routine?

[zimoun <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com>]

Hi

On Mon, 30 Aug 2021 at 01:58, Andreas Reuleaux <rx@a-rx.info> wrote:

> Now, long story short: I wonder -- two things:
>
> (1) what good is the debian /usr/bin/guix at all for me? - and

I am not sure to understand the question.

In short, /usr/bin/guix is not useful for the user because the user uses
~/.config/guix/current/bin/guix instead.  However, the user uses the
daemon which is /usr/bin/guix-daemon.  Except if you changed the SystemD
configuration.

When you run “guix pull” as a user, ~/.config/guix/current/bin/guix is
updated but not the daemon which is running with root privileges.

To update this daemon, you can run “guix pull” as root.  Note the daemon
changes really barely.  You can also update the daemon with “apt upgrade
guix” but I am not sure Guix is often updated.


> (2) what daily routine is recommended for upgrading/reconfiguring my
> whole guix system, with /usr/bin/guix perhaps - if any routine at all?
>
> Obviously, the
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> sudo guix system reconfigure /etc/config.scm
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> step does not apply, as there is no /etc/config.scm now on my system
> (it is running debian after all).

I do not think it makes because it is Guix on foreign distro and not
Guix System.

> Should I try to do something similar nevertheless once in a while?
> (and as what user: my unprivileged rx, or as root)?

Well, running Guix on Debian (installed via the script), I do:

  $ guix pull

once a week or more often, then

  $ guix package -u

when I am in good mood. :-)  Every good Moon phase, I do as root:

  # guix pull
  # systemctl restart guix-daemon.service 

Aside, I recommend you to read:

<https://guix.gnu.org/cookbook/en/guix-cookbook.html#Advanced-package-management>

Other said, my default profile ~/.guix-profile contains almost nothing.
And I have several profiles living at ~/.config/guix/profiles/ which I
update time to time.  Then I also have profiles living in the folder of
my project’s directories.

Also, I declare the packages a profile requires using a file
manifest.scm then I store “guix describe -f channels” as channels.scm
when I create the profiles. It allows to recreate elsewhere with:

  guix time-machine -C channels -- package -m manifest.scm

> Clear some cache maybe, etc.?

Time to time, I run “guix gc” with various options.


Hope that helps,
simon