Unison with non-Guix machines

Unison with non-Guix machines

[Andreas Enge]

Hello,

after the recent move to a newer ocaml version, I cannot unison any more
with my work machine, which has
   unison version 2.51.2 (ocaml 4.07.1)
instead of our new
   unison version 2.51.2 (ocaml 4.09.0)
This raises error messages of this kind:
Fatal error: Server: Fatal error during unmarshaling (input_value: ill-formed message),
possibly because client and server have been compiled with differentversions of the OCaml compiler.
(there are weird languages out there!)

Previously, I had somehow managed to copy a statically linked unison to the
other machine (which does not run Guix). Do you have a tip on how I can
obtain such a version? Possibly with Guix? Or do I need to compile it
by hand?

Andreas

Re: Unison with non-Guix machines

[zimoun]

Hi Andreas,

On Mon, 23 Nov 2020 at 20:05, Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr> wrote:

> Fatal error: Server: Fatal error during unmarshaling (input_value: ill-formed message),
> possibly because client and server have been compiled with differentversions of the OCaml compiler.
> (there are weird languages out there!)
>
> Previously, I had somehow managed to copy a statically linked unison to the
> other machine (which does not run Guix). Do you have a tip on how I can
> obtain such a version? Possibly with Guix? Or do I need to compile it
> by hand?

What is the one machine not running Guix?  GNU Linux or something else?

If the other machine is not running Guix but still GNU linux, you can
use “guix pack -RR” and then point the executable to the right location.

  /path/to/relocate/bin/unison
  

If this does not work, and you cannot change the Unison on the other
machine, you can always roll-back to your previous unison.  Somehow,

  guix time-machine --commit=<commit> -- install unison -p /path/to/

where <commit> is the last commit with an Unison working.  Then,

   /path/to/profile/bin/unison


Hope that helps,
simon

Re: Unison with non-Guix machines

[Arun Isaac]

Hi Andreas,

I had a similar problem with my Arch Linux work machine. I installed
Guix (as in running guix-daemon on a foreign distro) on my Arch work
machine, and used Guix to manage the unison package alone. That way, I
always had matching versions. But, you do need root privileges on your
work machine to pull this off.

It's weird that unison expects to be built with the same compiler
version, but it's very nice that Guix can handle this sort of thing
reliably. :-)

Regards,
Arun

Re: Unison with non-Guix machines

[Andreas Enge]

Hello Simon and Arun,

thanks a lot for your help! I am not root on the machine, so I could try
"guix pack". Next time - since I also found out a unison specific solution,
which I can share here for future reference:

guix environment unison
tar xvf `guix build unison -S`
cd unison-2.51.2-checkout/
make STATIC=true

That creates a static binary src/unison, which can be copied to the other
machine. It is compatible with the local, dynamically linked unison binary
on my Guix machine.

Andreas

Re: Unison with non-Guix machines

[zimoun]

Hi Andreas,

On Tue, 24 Nov 2020 at 11:24, Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr> wrote:

> guix environment unison
> tar xvf `guix build unison -S`
> cd unison-2.51.2-checkout/
> make STATIC=true

It looks like you are doing by hand what “guix pack” does for you. ;-)
Especially, open the unison doc, look for the compiling options, burn
CPU to recompile it.  Anyway. :-)

BTW, is it worth to add a recipe about Unison in the Cookbook?


Cheers,
simon

Re: Unison with non-Guix machines

[Andreas Enge]

On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 11:42:47AM +0100, zimoun wrote:
> It looks like you are doing by hand what “guix pack” does for you. ;-)
> Especially, open the unison doc, look for the compiling options, burn
> CPU to recompile it.  Anyway. :-)

Exactly, that kind of thing! But I had some time to spend in an
audioconference so could have a look at the source code :)

> BTW, is it worth to add a recipe about Unison in the Cookbook?

Probably not, since nobody else complained about the problem.
And since people can use "guix pack". We can reconsider if the
messages of desperate unison users start flowing in.

Andreas

Re: Unison with non-Guix machines

[Julien Lepiller]

From guix, you could try:

guix build unison --with-input=ocaml=ocaml@4.07 --with-input=ocaml-findlib=ocaml4.07-findlib

Or from a manifest, (package-with-ocaml4.07 unison).

Le 24 novembre 2020 05:53:17 GMT-05:00, Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr> a écrit :
>On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 11:42:47AM +0100, zimoun wrote:
>> It looks like you are doing by hand what “guix pack” does for you.
>;-)
>> Especially, open the unison doc, look for the compiling options, burn
>> CPU to recompile it.  Anyway. :-)
>
>Exactly, that kind of thing! But I had some time to spend in an
>audioconference so could have a look at the source code :)
>
>> BTW, is it worth to add a recipe about Unison in the Cookbook?
>
>Probably not, since nobody else complained about the problem.
>And since people can use "guix pack". We can reconsider if the
>messages of desperate unison users start flowing in.
>
>Andreas

Re: Unison with non-Guix machines

[Efraim Flashner]

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On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 06:46:51AM -0500, Julien Lepiller wrote:
> From guix, you could try:
> 
> guix build unison --with-input=ocaml=ocaml@4.07 --with-input=ocaml-findlib=ocaml4.07-findlib
> 
> Or from a manifest, (package-with-ocaml4.07 unison).
> 

I can confirm that it builds but I don't have a way to test it.

I suppose other options are to provide a unison-with-ocaml407 package or
to create a static output for ocaml with the static build and not just
static libraries.

> Le 24 novembre 2020 05:53:17 GMT-05:00, Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr> a écrit :
> >On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 11:42:47AM +0100, zimoun wrote:
> >> It looks like you are doing by hand what “guix pack” does for you.
> >;-)
> >> Especially, open the unison doc, look for the compiling options, burn
> >> CPU to recompile it.  Anyway. :-)
> >
> >Exactly, that kind of thing! But I had some time to spend in an
> >audioconference so could have a look at the source code :)
> >
> >> BTW, is it worth to add a recipe about Unison in the Cookbook?
> >
> >Probably not, since nobody else complained about the problem.
> >And since people can use "guix pack". We can reconsider if the
> >messages of desperate unison users start flowing in.
> >
> >Andreas

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Re: Unison with non-Guix machines

[zimoun]

Hi,

On Wed, 25 Nov 2020 at 09:32, Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il> wrote:

> I suppose other options are to provide a unison-with-ocaml407 package or
> to create a static output for ocaml with the static build and not just
> static libraries.

From my point of view, in the short term, the OCaml 4.07 packages should
be removed, maybe even the OCaml 4.07 compiler; keeping only the last
one 4.11 and the previous one 4.09.  It reduce the burden and the user
can always use the variants via the “guix time-machine”.

All the best,
simon