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

[Andreas Reuleaux <rx@a-rx.info>]

Well, thanks for answering this older question of mine as well. - I yet
have to study your answer in more detail (but not tonight any more).

-Andreas

zimoun <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> writes:

> 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