Re: Package Install Question for New User

[Thorsten Wilms <t_w_@freenet.de>]

On 05/11/2018 17.33, Brian Woodcox wrote:
> I then trying to install a package from the terminal.  How about
> icecat.  So I issue the command to install that.
> 
> All of a sudden the system is downloading and compiling a pile of
> packages that were already installed as root.

There is a single system-wide store for derivations at /gnu/store. The 
derivations are installed packages plus dependencies and removed 
packages that haven't been garbage-collected, yet.

If a package is already in the store, installing it for a specific user 
should only require symlinks to be added, as far as I understand. Unless 
a dependency is missing.

For example, I have "gimp" in my profile, pointing to an item in the store:

---
~: which gimp
/home/thorwil/.guix-profile/bin/gimp
~: ls -l /home/thorwil/.guix-profile/bin/gimp
lrwxrwxrwx 2 root root 64 Jan  1  1970 
/home/thorwil/.guix-profile/bin/gimp -> 
/gnu/store/wzp4ci2myckcg9qjqgm84rzv23snyz4d-gimp-2.10.6/bin/gimp
---

Thus it seems you misinterpreted some output (or there is a bug).

The results of guix working through the entire dependency chain for 
build, installation and runtime of a package can be rather surprising.


-- 
Thorsten Wilms

thorwil's design for free software:
http://thorwil.wordpress.com/