Re: Document /homeless-shelter?

[Matt <matt@excalamus.com>]

 ---- On Sun, 16 Jan 2022 13:25:57 -0500 Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name> wrote ----
 > On Sun, Jan 16, 2022 at 12:38:52PM -0500, Matt wrote:
 > > Subject: [PATCH] Document /homeless-shelter
 > 
 > I pushed a simpler addition to the manual:
 > 
 > https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/doc/guix.texi#n1181

That looks great. 

 > > +The @env{HOME} environment variable is set to @file{/homeless-shelter}
 > > +during the build process.  This ensures builds are determistic and
 > > +highlights all uses of @env{HOME}.  Packages should not depend on the
 > > +pathname of a home directory.  Instead, modify the build phase to set
 > > +@env{HOME} to @file{/tmp}:
 > > +
 > > +@lisp
 > > +(modify-phases %standard-phases
 > > +  (add-before 'check 'fix-home-directory
 > > +    (lambda _
 > > +      (setenv "HOME" "/tmp"))))
 > > +@end lisp
 > 
 > This text is basically correct but we have to balance verbosity with
 > readability.
 > 
 > The important thing was to document /homeless-shelter, so that packagers
 > understand it comes from Guix, and to explain its rationale.
 > 
 > It's not 100% true that setting HOME=homeless-shelter ensures that
 > builds are deterministic and highlights all uses of $HOME, although it
 > does help with those goals.
 > 
 > I don't think we want to document the use of /tmp, or recommend it as an
 > authoritative workaround.
 > 
 > Rather, it's a common solution, but packagers must seek to understand
 > how the package build scripts are trying to use $HOME and make a
 > judgement.
 > 
 > Additionally, I don't think that Build Environment Setup is the right
 > place to document workarounds.
 
This all looks sound to me. Thanks for taking the time to work with me on this.