[PATCH] doc: Explain --localstatedir some more.

[PATCH] doc: Explain --localstatedir some more.

[Jookia]

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This should hopefully stop people from running in to issues when
building Guix from source as they have in the past.

* doc/guix.texi (Requirements): Add explanation of the localstatedir flag.
  Discuss how to keep compatibility with binary installation and the package.
---
 doc/guix.texi | 17 +++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi
index 0e8e5ad..94323ff 100644
--- a/doc/guix.texi
+++ b/doc/guix.texi
@@ -16,8 +16,9 @@ Copyright @copyright{} 2013 Nikita Karetnikov@*
 Copyright @copyright{} 2015, 2016 Mathieu Lirzin@*
 Copyright @copyright{} 2014 Pierre-Antoine Rault@*
 Copyright @copyright{} 2015 Taylan Ulrich Bayırlı/Kammer@*
-Copyright @copyright{} 2015, 2016 Leo Famulari
-Copyright @copyright{} 2016 Ben Woodcroft
+Copyright @copyright{} 2015, 2016 Leo Famulari@*
+Copyright @copyright{} 2016 Ben Woodcroft@*
+Copyright @copyright{} 2016 Jookia
 
 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
@@ -514,6 +515,18 @@ manager} is available, you
 can instead configure Guix with @code{--disable-daemon}.  In that case,
 Nix replaces the three dependencies above.
 
+Tradionally Guix stores its state in @var{localstatedir} as most GNU
+applications do.  In certain situations you may want to change this setting,
+by passing the @code{--localstatedir=@var{path}} flag to @command{configure}.
+
+The binary installation of Guix and the package of Guix both use @code{/var} as
+their @var{localstatedir} path.  If you wish to have compatibility with one of
+these versions of Guix installed or you plan to install, passing
+@code{--localstatedir=/var} to @command{configure} will allow your compiled Guix
+to share state.  Be warned that sharing the same Guix store (usually located at
+@code{/gnu}) with different sets of state could cause issues such as garbage
+collecting store entries that are alive in one Guix's state but not the other's.
+
 Guix is compatible with Nix, so it is possible to share the same store
 between both.  To do so, you must pass @command{configure} not only the
 same @code{--with-store-dir} value, but also the same
-- 
2.7.0

Re: [PATCH] doc: Explain --localstatedir some more.

[Andreas Enge]

On Thu, Mar 10, 2016 at 07:35:53AM +1100, Jookia wrote:
> This should hopefully stop people from running in to issues when
> building Guix from source as they have in the past.

I still think we should make /var the default of localstatedir; this would
avoid most problems.

Andreas, doing his Cicero

Re: [PATCH] doc: Explain --localstatedir some more.

[Jookia]

On Wed, Mar 09, 2016 at 10:07:03PM +0100, Andreas Enge wrote:
> I still think we should make /var the default of localstatedir; this would
> avoid most problems.
> 
> Andreas, doing his Cicero

As much as that's appealing, this breaks GNU conventions. I think it'd be nice
to put the state in the store directory by default since it seems the two are
related, though this might not be the case in other situations.

Jookia.

Re: [PATCH] doc: Explain --localstatedir some more.

[Andreas Enge]

On Thu, Mar 10, 2016 at 08:24:44AM +1100, Jookia wrote:
> As much as that's appealing, this breaks GNU conventions. I think it'd be nice
> to put the state in the store directory by default since it seems the two are
> related, though this might not be the case in other situations.

This would also be an interesting option; actually, I think things were like
that a long time ago... It would make sense to keep everything related to
the management of the store in /gnu, so that the complete store could
be copied easily.

Maybe we should make the new convention that localstatedit should default to
/gnu; this cannot be against GNU standards, at least not in spirit :-)

Andreas

Re: [PATCH] doc: Explain --localstatedir some more.

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr> writes:

> On Thu, Mar 10, 2016 at 08:24:44AM +1100, Jookia wrote:
>> As much as that's appealing, this breaks GNU conventions. I think it'd be nice
>> to put the state in the store directory by default since it seems the two are
>> related, though this might not be the case in other situations.
>
> This would also be an interesting option; actually, I think things were like
> that a long time ago... It would make sense to keep everything related to
> the management of the store in /gnu, so that the complete store could
> be copied easily.
>
> Maybe we should make the new convention that localstatedit should default to
> /gnu; this cannot be against GNU standards, at least not in spirit :-)

I’d like to keep all things in /gnu, but note that we also have
/etc/guix/acl and possibly other files that are distributed across the
filesystem.

~~ Ricardo