Error starting a guix shell

Error starting a guix shell

[Zelphir Kaltstahl]

Hello Guix users!

Today I had a strange error, when I ran a `guix shell` command:

~~~~
(repl-version 0 1 1)
(exception %exception (non-self-quoting 140737175054176 "#<&message message: \"unsupported manifest format\">"))
~~~~

This happened with guix on foreign distro and that distro is a Xubuntu 22.04, 
which I recently upgraded from 20.04 -> 22.04. After that, I think today was the 
first time I ran that guix shell command. Because of the distribution upgrade, a 
lot of things can have changed.

This is how I ran the command:

I have an `env.bash` file:

~~~~
#!/usr/bin/env bash

set -Eeuxo pipefail

DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" > /dev/null 2>&1 && pwd)"

printf "script directory is: %s\n" "${DIR}"
guix time-machine \
      --channels="${DIR}/channels.scm" -- \
      shell \
      --development \
      --check \
      --manifest="${DIR}/manifest.scm"
~~~~

The `manifest.scm` file is:

~~~~
(specifications->manifest
  '("python"
    "python-requests"
    "python-docker"
    "python-websocket-client"
    "python-iniconfig"
    "python-pytest"
    "docker-compose"
    ))
~~~~

The `channels.scm` file is:

~~~~
(list (channel
         (name 'guix)
         (url"https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git")
         (branch "master")
         (commit
           "dbf09879710aefe6cedd9ed975cc2b79df01b755")
         (introduction
           (make-channel-introduction
             "9edb3f66fd807b096b48283debdcddccfea34bad"
             (openpgp-fingerprint
               "BBB0 2DDF 2CEA F6A8 0D1D  E643 A2A0 6DF2 A33A 54FA")))))
~~~~

However, I unfortunately already updated the `channels.scm` file using `guix 
describe --format=channels > channels.scm`, so the above file is not the file, 
with which I had the error, and I have no idea what the channel was before.

When I had the error, I simply ran `bash guix-env/env.bash`, to activate the 
shell. Then I got an error and guix told me about a log file, some `*.log.gz` 
file. That one I copied out of the GNU store directory and opened the contained 
text file. It contained the error I wrote above.

I am aware, that without the exact `channels.scm` file, this might be 
irreproducible. Sorry about it! When I hit the error, I thought: "Ahh well, 
quickly update guix and see if it solves it." and I also did the guix describe 
thingy to update the channel file, because my primary goal was to get the guix 
shell working again. Only later I thought of still needed that old file, in 
order to make a proper report. Sorry! After doing the following, it worked again:

~~~~
sudo -i
guix pull && guix package -u
(Ctrl+d)
guix pull && guix package -u
guix describe --format=channels > channels.scm
~~~~

My question now is, what could have caused the error? I thought, that, if I keep 
`channels.scm` the same, I would get a reproducible environment, assuming, that 
guix itself does not change behavior. Also the OS upgrade can of course have 
interfered and I would not be able to tell. But perhaps my strategy to get 
reproducible shells is not as safe as I thought? ("Can I still run in this 
environment/shell in 5 years? In 10? With the same results?")

Best regards and apologies again for the not so precise information,
Zelphir

-- 
repositories:https://notabug.org/ZelphirKaltstahl

Re: Error starting a guix shell

[(]

On Tue Jul 19, 2022 at 7:45 PM BST, Zelphir Kaltstahl wrote:
> unsupported manifest format

Good ol' #56545 strikes again.

Re: Error starting a guix shell

[zimoun]

Hi,

On Tue, 19 Jul 2022 at 19:55, "(" <paren@disroot.org> wrote:

> Good ol' #56545 strikes again.

Well, #56545 is duplicated of #56441 already fixed. :-)

http://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/56441


Indeed, using a Guix revision from the range:

4ff12d1de7cd617b791996ee7ca1240660b4c20e Fri Jul 1 23:29:16 2022 +0200
c9fbd40785a99e13a59d8e530830ce85220a9871 Fri Jul 8 23:58:11 2022 +0200

cannot work.  It means that going from one commit to this range to one
commit before 4ff12d1de7cd617b791996ee7ca1240660b4c20e fails.


If you Guix pull, then it is fixed.
Else, run

  guix time-machine --commit=c9fbd40785a99e13a59d8e530830ce85220a9871 \
       -- time-machine -C channels.scm \
       -- <command> [options]

where channels.scm is whatever you would like to go. :-)


“Just” 319 revisions are impacted by this bug.

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ git log --oneline 4ff12d1de7cd617b791996ee7ca1240660b4c20e^..c9fbd40785a99e13a59d8e530830ce85220a9871 \
      | wc -l
319
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---




Cheers,
simon