offline repo server

offline repo server

[Quiliro Ordonez Baca]

I am not sure if this has been asked before. But I live in a place where
there is no network link and I would like users to install different
softwares there.

Is it possible to have a machine connect to the net every so often so
that it updates all available substitutes (or source if substitutes are
not available)...and then take that machine to an offline site where
other machines use it to install all packages that users want?

Re: offline repo server

[Jalus Bilieyich]

Just go to a nearby public place with internet access and bring a
laptop. Install away. And come back with all the package tarballs.

On 01/17/2018 05:58 PM, Quiliro Ordonez Baca wrote:
> I am not sure if this has been asked before. But I live in a place where
> there is no network link and I would like users to install different
> softwares there.
> 
> Is it possible to have a machine connect to the net every so often so
> that it updates all available substitutes (or source if substitutes are
> not available)...and then take that machine to an offline site where
> other machines use it to install all packages that users want?
> 

Re: offline repo server

[Eric Bavier]

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On Wed, 17 Jan 2018 18:58:08 -0500
Quiliro Ordonez Baca <quiliro@riseup.net> wrote:

> I am not sure if this has been asked before. But I live in a place where
> there is no network link and I would like users to install different
> softwares there.
> 
> Is it possible to have a machine connect to the net every so often so
> that it updates all available substitutes (or source if substitutes are
> not available)...and then take that machine to an offline site where
> other machines use it to install all packages that users want?
> 

I don't think we don't have anything out-of-the-box that would elegantly
handle a use-case like this.  That being said, you should be able to
hack something together.  I think a good place to start would be the
recent work Ludovic did on 'guix weather', which queries substitute
servers for availability of package substitutes.  You could base
something off that which, instead of simply reporting statistics,
actually builds the derivations: either the source derivation if a
substitute is unavailable, or the package derivation.

Obviously, downloading substitutes and/or source for all
packages could take quite a but of time, so you may instead want to
limit to a manifest of the packages you're interested in.  But that
could get more complicated because a package's source is "useless"
unless you have sources or substitutes of the packages needed to build
it, so you'd need to analyze the dependency tree a bit.

It's an interesting use-case.

Happy Hacking,
`~Eric

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Re: offline repo server

[Efraim Flashner]

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On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 06:12:49PM -0600, Eric Bavier wrote:
> On Wed, 17 Jan 2018 18:58:08 -0500
> Quiliro Ordonez Baca <quiliro@riseup.net> wrote:
> 
> > I am not sure if this has been asked before. But I live in a place where
> > there is no network link and I would like users to install different
> > softwares there.
> > 
> > Is it possible to have a machine connect to the net every so often so
> > that it updates all available substitutes (or source if substitutes are
> > not available)...and then take that machine to an offline site where
> > other machines use it to install all packages that users want?
> > 
> 
> I don't think we don't have anything out-of-the-box that would elegantly
> handle a use-case like this.  That being said, you should be able to
> hack something together.  I think a good place to start would be the
> recent work Ludovic did on 'guix weather', which queries substitute
> servers for availability of package substitutes.  You could base
> something off that which, instead of simply reporting statistics,
> actually builds the derivations: either the source derivation if a
> substitute is unavailable, or the package derivation.
> 
> Obviously, downloading substitutes and/or source for all
> packages could take quite a but of time, so you may instead want to
> limit to a manifest of the packages you're interested in.  But that
> could get more complicated because a package's source is "useless"
> unless you have sources or substitutes of the packages needed to build
> it, so you'd need to analyze the dependency tree a bit.
> 
> It's an interesting use-case.
> 
> Happy Hacking,
> `~Eric

The shell script I use on my aarch64 build machine is:
guix build --no-substitutes --no-grafts --keep-going $(guix package -A | cut -f1,2 --output-delimiter=@) --sources=transitive

Not related to caching sources but related to building all the packages,
I take off '--sources=transitive' and put on '--max-silent-time=1800' when
I'm= building everything.

I guess if you're not running it as a fully independant build server
then you wouldn't need the '--no-substitutes'


-- 
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Re: offline repo server

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Quiliro Ordonez Baca <quiliro@riseup.net> writes:

> I am not sure if this has been asked before. But I live in a place where
> there is no network link and I would like users to install different
> softwares there.
>
> Is it possible to have a machine connect to the net every so often so
> that it updates all available substitutes (or source if substitutes are
> not available)...and then take that machine to an offline site where
> other machines use it to install all packages that users want?

You have to control the version of Guix on these machines (it should be
the same).  If you know what packages they need then you can put them in
manifests and build those manifests on the host that can be connected to
the internet once in a while.  Later at the offline site you can then
fire up “guix publish” to share your populated store with the other
users.

--
Ricardo

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