developing software with guix environment

developing software with guix environment

[nee]

Hello, I've been using guix `environment -l env.scm` to work on
different programming projects on my laptop.
The problem is: When I do guix pull or gc, these environments might get
lost, and when I'm on the train with no network and run `guix
environment` it will try to graft/rebuild/whatever, which requires an
internet connection, instead of just opening the last working environment.
So I can't work on my projects until I get back online.

I don't want to create a new user for each project.
Can I somehow apply guix environment to a new profile per project, so
I'm guaranteed to have it working whenever I run it?

Re: developing software with guix environment

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi nee,

nee <nee@cock.li> skribis:

> Hello, I've been using guix `environment -l env.scm` to work on
> different programming projects on my laptop.
> The problem is: When I do guix pull or gc, these environments might get
> lost, and when I'm on the train with no network and run `guix
> environment` it will try to graft/rebuild/whatever, which requires an
> internet connection, instead of just opening the last working environment.
> So I can't work on my projects until I get back online.

To protect your environment from GC, you can use ‘guix environment
--root’: it register a “garbage collector root” for your environment as
a symlink, which means your environment won’t be GC’d unless you remove
that symlink.

To prevent your environment from being updated even if you ran ‘guix
pull’ in the meantime, you can use a separate profile.  For instance,
you can create a ‘dev’ profile for your development environment:

  guix package -p dev -i gcc-toolchain make

and then whenever you want to “enter” that profile, do:

  . ./dev/etc/profile

And of course you can have as many profiles as you want.

HTH!

Ludo’.

Re: developing software with guix environment

[Adonay Felipe Nogueira]

ludo, I'm very new to guix environment, but I'm wondering something:

About "preventing environment from being updated by ‘guix pull’ in the
meantime", do you mean that:

1. Even if I specify the `--root [Some file path.]` option to `guix
   environment`.

2. Exit/leave the environmente due to other stuff.

3. Some days go by, I do `guix pull` (and get updates).

4. Then decide to go back to my environment...

Will `guix environment` try to apply the current set of recipes
available from the last `guix pull` into the environment?

Morever, in this last `guix environment`, will it try to download
things?

I find it interesting because your suggestion to make a separate profile
seems to imply so.

Of course, this is meant to be a friendly message, because I'm just
learning stuff --- like most of those reading. :)

-- 
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Re: developing software with guix environment

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi,

Adonay Felipe Nogueira <adfeno@openmailbox.org> skribis:

> About "preventing environment from being updated by ‘guix pull’ in the
> meantime", do you mean that:
>
> 1. Even if I specify the `--root [Some file path.]` option to `guix
>    environment`.
>
> 2. Exit/leave the environmente due to other stuff.
>
> 3. Some days go by, I do `guix pull` (and get updates).
>
> 4. Then decide to go back to my environment...
>
> Will `guix environment` try to apply the current set of recipes
> available from the last `guix pull` into the environment?

Yes.

> Morever, in this last `guix environment`, will it try to download
> things?

It will try to build or download whatever is missing (perhaps nothing,
perhaps many things.)

I hope this clarifies things!

Ludo’.

Re: developing software with guix environment

[Adonay Felipe Nogueira]

Thank you very much for the information. :)