Re: Questions about "guix pull"

[ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)]

Chris Marusich <cmmarusich@gmail.com> skribis:

> I have read the Info node "(guix) Invoking guix pull", but it doesn't
> seem to answer the following questions:
>
> - Who is allowed to run "guix pull"? Only root? Any user?
>
> - After a successful "guix pull", are the new guix tools and package
>   definitions visible to everyone, regardless of who ran the command?

I’ve added a paragraph to clarify that:

  Any user can update their Guix copy using @command{guix pull}, and the
  effect is limited to the user who run @command{guix pull}.  For
  instance, when user @code{root} runs @command{guix pull}, this has no
  effect on the version of Guix that user @code{alice} sees, and vice
  versa@footnote{Under the hood, @command{guix pull} updates the
  @file{~/.config/guix/latest} symbolic link to point to the latest Guix,
  and the @command{guix} command loads code from there.}.

> - Are there any best practices, or pitfalls to avoid, when using "guix
>   pull"?

Currently ‘guix pull’ updates only the Scheme part of Guix, which is
certainly the most important thing but not the only thing: see
<http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=22629>.

> - I understand that some people don't use "guix pull" and instead just
>   run guix from a local git checkout. Should the manual also explain why
>   you might want to do that and how it can be done?

I think this is mostly due to the fact that (1) many users are also Guix
developers, so they have a Git checkout around anyway ;-), (2) using the
Git checkout is usually faster (currently ‘guix pull’ redownloads the
whole thing.)

There’s also the problem that ‘guix pull’ does not authenticate the code
it downloads; the problem is also present with Git, though (currently
only release tags are signed in Guix.)  All this needs to be fixed!

> I'm happy to submit a patch to improve this Info node, but I need to
> understand "guix pull" first.

Sure!

Thanks for your feedback,
Ludo’.