Guix installing different package versions on different machines

Guix installing different package versions on different machines

[Zelphir Kaltstahl]

Hi Guix users!

I installed Guix on my own machine (Xubuntu 18.04.3) and at work on my
machine (Ubuntu 18.04.3). Although I do `guix pull` and then `guix
package -u`, both machines get different versions of packages installed
this way. I have seen 2 examples of this behavior so far: Emacs (home:
26.1, work: 26.3) and Guile (home: 2.2.4, work: 2.2.6). I don't
understand this behavior, as I thought that both installations of Guix
should use the same repositories, because I installed them the same way
and I even use the same OS at the core. Furthermore I thought, that Guix
installs packages as they have been provided by contributors and does
not perform checks, whether some package is suitable on a system.

Where is my understanding wrong?

What can lead to this behavior?

How can I get the newest versions of all things on all my machines?

Regards,

Zelphir

Re: Guix installing different package versions on different machines

[Jesse Gibbons]

On Sat, 2019-09-28 at 15:02 +0200, Zelphir Kaltstahl wrote:
> Hi Guix users!
> 
> I installed Guix on my own machine (Xubuntu 18.04.3) and at work on my
> machine (Ubuntu 18.04.3). Although I do `guix pull` and then `guix
> package -u`, both machines get different versions of packages installed
> this way. I have seen 2 examples of this behavior so far: Emacs (home:
> 26.1, work: 26.3) and Guile (home: 2.2.4, work: 2.2.6). I don't
> understand this behavior, as I thought that both installations of Guix
> should use the same repositories, because I installed them the same way
> and I even use the same OS at the core. Furthermore I thought, that Guix
> installs packages as they have been provided by contributors and does
> not perform checks, whether some package is suitable on a system.
> 
> Where is my understanding wrong?
> 
> What can lead to this behavior?
You probably have different versions (commits) of guix. Due guix's commit
frequency, if you update guix at home, then update guix at work, then some
packages will probably have different versions.
> 
> How can I get the newest versions of all things on all my machines?
guix pull && guix upgrade

To make sure all package versions match, write cron jobs to do this at the
same time on both machines.

> Regards,
> 
> Zelphir
> 
> 

Re: Guix installing different package versions on different machines

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

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Zelphir,

Zelphir Kaltstahl 写道：
> I installed Guix on my own machine (Xubuntu 18.04.3) and at work 
> on my
> machine (Ubuntu 18.04.3). Although I do `guix pull` and then 
> `guix
> package -u`, both machines get different versions of packages 
> installed
> this way.

> Guile (home: 2.2.4, work: 2.2.6).

This is not normal.  GNU Guile 2.2.6 was added to Guix almost 3 
months ago.

What does ‘guix describe’ return on both machines?  Something 
recent?  You can look up the commit IDs in the git history.

What does ‘which guix’ say?  It should print the same thing on 
both machines (/home/you!/.config/guix/current/bin/guix). 
Certainly not /usr/local/bin/guix or anything like that.

> I don't
> understand this behavior, as I thought that both installations 
> of Guix
> should use the same repositories, because I installed them the 
> same way
> and I even use the same OS at the core. Furthermore I thought, 
> that Guix
> installs packages as they have been provided by contributors and 
> does
> not perform checks, whether some package is suitable on a 
> system.
>
> Where is my understanding wrong?

Trick question :-)  Your understanding is, generally, correct.

> What can lead to this behavior?

Guix doesn't strictly ‘use repositories’: package definitions are 
part of and updated in sync with the package manager, which is why 
it matters *which* guix runs when you invoke it and why I'm 
interested in the output of ‘which guix’ above.  ‘guix pull’ 
*only* updates /home/you!/.config/guix/current/bin/guix.

Packages can be marked as unsupported on certain architectures 
(e.g. i686 vs. x86_64 or aarch64) and/or kernels (the Hurd or 
Linux), but guile@2.2.6 supports all of them.

AFAIK Guix only runs on one OS (GNU), so that can't affect things 
either.

Jesse Gibbons 写道：
> To make sure all package versions match, write cron jobs to do 
> this at the
> same time on both machines.

Yes.  If said matching is really important to you, having all 
machines ‘git pull --commit=…’ to the same commit is even better 
but requires some communication between them.

Kind regards,

T G-R

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Re: Guix installing different package versions on different machines

[Zelphir Kaltstahl]

The moment at which I did the `guix pull` and `guix package- u` cannot
be the issue for outdated packages, as I have done both multiple times
weeks after noticing the behavior described. It is not, that the package
was not available in the morning but was available in the afternoon or
something like that. For weeks I've tried multiple times and the version
difference is still there.

On 9/28/19 4:41 PM, Tobias Geerinckx-Rice wrote:
> Zelphir,
>
> Zelphir Kaltstahl 写道：
>> I installed Guix on my own machine (Xubuntu 18.04.3) and at work on my
>> machine (Ubuntu 18.04.3). Although I do `guix pull` and then `guix
>> package -u`, both machines get different versions of packages installed
>> this way.
>
>> Guile (home: 2.2.4, work: 2.2.6).
>
> This is not normal.  GNU Guile 2.2.6 was added to Guix almost 3 months
> ago.
>
> What does ‘guix describe’ return on both machines?  Something recent? 
> You can look up the commit IDs in the git history.
>
> What does ‘which guix’ say?  It should print the same thing on both
> machines (/home/you!/.config/guix/current/bin/guix). Certainly not
> /usr/local/bin/guix or anything like that.

This seems to be more in the right direction:

$ guix describe
guix describe: error: failed to determine origin

$ which guix
/usr/local/bin/guix

So there seems to be an issue here. The question then is, how it got to
/usr/local/bin/guix. `sudo aptitude search guix` does not reveal any
results, so I cannot have installed it in such a way. I am quite sure
that I simply followed the instructions on the website to do a binary
installation on both system, at work and at home.

I currently do not have access to the machine at work for the next few
days, so I cannot check what the results for those commands are on that
machine.

If /usr/local/bin/guix is wrong, what could cause it and do I need to
reinstall Guix?

>
>> I don't
>> understand this behavior, as I thought that both installations of Guix
>> should use the same repositories, because I installed them the same way
>> and I even use the same OS at the core. Furthermore I thought, that Guix
>> installs packages as they have been provided by contributors and does
>> not perform checks, whether some package is suitable on a system.
>>
>> Where is my understanding wrong?
>
> Trick question :-)  Your understanding is, generally, correct.
>
>> What can lead to this behavior?
>
> Guix doesn't strictly ‘use repositories’: package definitions are part
> of and updated in sync with the package manager, which is why it
> matters *which* guix runs when you invoke it and why I'm interested in
> the output of ‘which guix’ above.  ‘guix pull’ *only* updates
> /home/you!/.config/guix/current/bin/guix.
>
> Packages can be marked as unsupported on certain architectures (e.g.
> i686 vs. x86_64 or aarch64) and/or kernels (the Hurd or Linux), but
> guile@2.2.6 supports all of them.
>
> AFAIK Guix only runs on one OS (GNU), so that can't affect things either.
>
> Jesse Gibbons 写道：
>> To make sure all package versions match, write cron jobs to do this
>> at the
>> same time on both machines.
>
> Yes.  If said matching is really important to you, having all machines
> ‘git pull --commit=…’ to the same commit is even better but requires
> some communication between them.


It is not a production system, I just want to be on the up-to-date
version of packages, when they are released. So not super important, but
annoying to know, that for some reason I am not getting the new version
at home.

Thank for your help so far,

Zelphir

Re: Guix installing different package versions on different machines

[Hebi Li]

On Sat, Sep 28 2019, Zelphir Kaltstahl wrote:

> $ which guix
> /usr/local/bin/guix
>
> So there seems to be an issue here.

Hi Zelphir,

You just need to add the correct path to $PATH:

    export PATH="$HOME/.config/guix/current/bin:$PATH"

--
Hebi

Re: Guix installing different package versions on different machines

[Zelphir Kaltstahl]

I fixed the problem by reinstalling Guix multiple times (I had other
issues popping up when doing so, but was able to solve them.).

However, after a fresh install of Guix the result of `which guix` is
still `/usr/local/bin/guix`. I think that might not be an actual problem.

I now have updated packages, just like on my machine at work.

On 9/28/19 10:43 PM, Zelphir Kaltstahl wrote:
> The moment at which I did the `guix pull` and `guix package- u` cannot
> be the issue for outdated packages, as I have done both multiple times
> weeks after noticing the behavior described. It is not, that the package
> was not available in the morning but was available in the afternoon or
> something like that. For weeks I've tried multiple times and the version
> difference is still there.
>
> On 9/28/19 4:41 PM, Tobias Geerinckx-Rice wrote:
>> Zelphir,
>>
>> Zelphir Kaltstahl 写道：
>>> I installed Guix on my own machine (Xubuntu 18.04.3) and at work on my
>>> machine (Ubuntu 18.04.3). Although I do `guix pull` and then `guix
>>> package -u`, both machines get different versions of packages installed
>>> this way.
>>> Guile (home: 2.2.4, work: 2.2.6).
>> This is not normal.  GNU Guile 2.2.6 was added to Guix almost 3 months
>> ago.
>>
>> What does ‘guix describe’ return on both machines?  Something recent? 
>> You can look up the commit IDs in the git history.
>>
>> What does ‘which guix’ say?  It should print the same thing on both
>> machines (/home/you!/.config/guix/current/bin/guix). Certainly not
>> /usr/local/bin/guix or anything like that.
> This seems to be more in the right direction:
>
> $ guix describe
> guix describe: error: failed to determine origin
>
> $ which guix
> /usr/local/bin/guix
>
> So there seems to be an issue here. The question then is, how it got to
> /usr/local/bin/guix. `sudo aptitude search guix` does not reveal any
> results, so I cannot have installed it in such a way. I am quite sure
> that I simply followed the instructions on the website to do a binary
> installation on both system, at work and at home.
>
> I currently do not have access to the machine at work for the next few
> days, so I cannot check what the results for those commands are on that
> machine.
>
> If /usr/local/bin/guix is wrong, what could cause it and do I need to
> reinstall Guix?
>
>>> I don't
>>> understand this behavior, as I thought that both installations of Guix
>>> should use the same repositories, because I installed them the same way
>>> and I even use the same OS at the core. Furthermore I thought, that Guix
>>> installs packages as they have been provided by contributors and does
>>> not perform checks, whether some package is suitable on a system.
>>>
>>> Where is my understanding wrong?
>> Trick question :-)  Your understanding is, generally, correct.
>>
>>> What can lead to this behavior?
>> Guix doesn't strictly ‘use repositories’: package definitions are part
>> of and updated in sync with the package manager, which is why it
>> matters *which* guix runs when you invoke it and why I'm interested in
>> the output of ‘which guix’ above.  ‘guix pull’ *only* updates
>> /home/you!/.config/guix/current/bin/guix.
>>
>> Packages can be marked as unsupported on certain architectures (e.g.
>> i686 vs. x86_64 or aarch64) and/or kernels (the Hurd or Linux), but
>> guile@2.2.6 supports all of them.
>>
>> AFAIK Guix only runs on one OS (GNU), so that can't affect things either.
>>
>> Jesse Gibbons 写道：
>>> To make sure all package versions match, write cron jobs to do this
>>> at the
>>> same time on both machines.
>> Yes.  If said matching is really important to you, having all machines
>> ‘git pull --commit=…’ to the same commit is even better but requires
>> some communication between them.
>
> It is not a production system, I just want to be on the up-to-date
> version of packages, when they are released. So not super important, but
> annoying to know, that for some reason I am not getting the new version
> at home.
>
> Thank for your help so far,
>
> Zelphir
>
>

Re: Guix installing different package versions on different machines

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

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Zelphir,

Zelphir Kaltstahl 写道：
> I fixed the problem by reinstalling Guix multiple times (I had 
> other
> issues popping up when doing so, but was able to solve them.).

Great!

> However, after a fresh install of Guix the result of `which 
> guix` is
> still `/usr/local/bin/guix`. I think that might not be an actual 
> problem.

Not as long as it's a symlink to 
/var/guix/profiles/per-user/$user/current-guix/bin/guix, and you 
regularly ‘guix pull’ as that user.

Kind regards,

T G-R

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