I accidentally sent this to Mark's private account rather than the per-bug address.

Re-sending it as requested.

-----Original Message-----
From: Karrick McDermott <kmcdermott@linkedin.com>
Date: Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 8:17 PM
To: Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org>
Subject: Re: bug#35623: guix pull failed on RHEL7

    Here's the script output from checking my $HOME environment variable, showing my account id, and showing that my account id is not in the /etc/passwd file, as user accounts on this machine is managed by LDAP.
    
    My $HOME environment variable _is_ set, and I did verify that it is properly exported from the shell so child processes inherit that variable.
    
    I re-ran the command with debugging and attached that as well.
    
    Right now I suspect that Guix is not playing well on systems that use LDAP for user authentication.
    
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org>
    Date: Tuesday, May 7, 2019 at 5:41 PM
    To: Karrick McDermott <kmcdermott@linkedin.com>
    Cc: "35623@debbugs.gnu.org" <35623@debbugs.gnu.org>
    Subject: Re: bug#35623: guix pull failed on RHEL7
    
        Hi Karrick,
        
        Karrick McDermott <kmcdermott@linkedin.com> writes:
        
        > Note, I ran this with non privileged permissions, which might be
        > wrong.  I am only sending this email because the program requested it.
        
        We normally run 'guix pull' unprivileged, so that's fine.
        
        > [kmcdermo@kmcdermo-ld2 ~]$ guix pull
        > Updating channel 'guix' from Git repository at 'https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgit.savannah.gnu.org%2Fgit%2Fguix.git&amp;data=02%7C01%7Ckmcdermott%40linkedin.com%7C01dff6fcc27a44adb81808d6d334ba5d%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C1%7C636928620755383984&amp;sdata=zpxqzoDAP5qsH3%2B%2Fx36vtoVnMDabgMGPtTVdcLlwYW4%3D&amp;reserved=0'...
        > Building from this channel:
        >   guix      https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgit.savannah.gnu.org%2Fgit%2Fguix.git&amp;data=02%7C01%7Ckmcdermott%40linkedin.com%7C01dff6fcc27a44adb81808d6d334ba5d%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C1%7C1%7C636928620755393984&amp;sdata=VBl4SXVccPIdCvhLBkBSpwh2d%2BnZIVU%2FvXY0QhWrQfI%3D&amp;reserved=0   338defe
        > Computing Guix derivation for 'x86_64-linux'...  Backtrace:
        > In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
        >    222:29 19 (map1 (((guix i18n)) ((guix colors)) ((guix gexp)) (#) ?))
        >    222:29 18 (map1 (((guix colors)) ((guix gexp)) ((guix sets)) (#) ?))
        >    222:29 17 (map1 (((guix gexp)) ((guix sets)) ((guix utils)) (#) ?))
        >    222:29 16 (map1 (((guix sets)) ((guix utils)) ((guix store)) (#) ?))
        >    222:29 15 (map1 (((guix utils)) ((guix store)) ((guix config)) # ?))
        >    222:29 14 (map1 (((guix store)) ((guix config)) ((guix #)) ((?)) ?))
        >    222:29 13 (map1 (((guix config)) ((guix packages)) ((guix #)) # ?))
        >    222:29 12 (map1 (((guix packages)) ((guix profiles)) ((guix #)) ?))
        >    222:17 11 (map1 (((guix profiles)) ((guix derivations)) ((# #)) ?))
        >   2800:17 10 (resolve-interface (guix profiles) #:select _ #:hide _ # ?)
        > In ice-9/threads.scm:
        >     390:8  9 (_ _)
        > In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
        >   2726:13  8 (_)
        > In ice-9/threads.scm:
        >     390:8  7 (_ _)
        > In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
        >   2994:20  6 (_)
        >    2312:4  5 (save-module-excursion #<procedure 2adf2d0 at ice-9/boo?>)
        >   3014:26  4 (_)
        > In unknown file:
        >            3 (primitive-load-path "guix/profiles" #<procedure 292eae?>)
        > In ./guix/profiles.scm:
        >   1788:23  2 (_)
        > In ./guix/utils.scm:
        >    661:47  1 (xdg-directory _ "/.config" #:ensure? _)
        > In unknown file:
        >            0 (getpw 10452)
        >
        > ERROR: In procedure getpw:
        > In procedure getpw: entry not found
        
        Guix is trying to find out your home directory, so that it can update
        files in ~/.config/guix.  If your HOME environment variable was set, it
        would use that, but apparently it's not set, in which case it tries to
        use getpw(3) to look up the entry in /etc/passwd corresponding to your
        user id.  getpw(3) failed for some reason.
        
        It seems that you're on an unusual system, since HOME is usually set by
        default.  Anyway, setting HOME should fix the issue for you.  Please let
        us know if that works.
        
              Thanks,
                Mark