bug#24194: GUIX gc - add warning

bug#24194: GUIX gc - add warning

[J. Eppler]

Hello,
 
I used GUIX for the first time and invoked: guix gc. The command deleted
all my bootstrap files (gcc, binutils, findutils etc.). There should be
a warning added to the manual page:

https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Invoking-guix-gc.html

I was actually assuming that guix gc removes orphan packages,
build-caches, temporary files etc., but it does not seem to only do that.

Best regards
  J. Eppler

bug#24194: GUIX gc - add warning

[Mark H Weaver]

"J. Eppler" <j.eppler@openmailbox.org> writes:

> I used GUIX for the first time and invoked: guix gc. The command deleted
> all my bootstrap files (gcc, binutils, findutils etc.). There should be
> a warning added to the manual page:
>
> https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Invoking-guix-gc.html
>
> I was actually assuming that guix gc removes orphan packages,
> build-caches, temporary files etc., but it does not seem to only do that.
 
To clarify, J. Eppler was specifically avoiding binary substitutes, so
he spent a lot of time bootstrapping Guix from source code, and was
disappointed to discover that after "guix gc" he had to repeat that
process.

      Mark

bug#24194: GUIX gc - add warning

[Leo Famulari]

On Tue, Aug 09, 2016 at 07:59:28PM -0400, J. Eppler wrote:
> Hello,
>  
> I used GUIX for the first time and invoked: guix gc. The command deleted
> all my bootstrap files (gcc, binutils, findutils etc.). There should be
> a warning added to the manual page:
> 
> https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Invoking-guix-gc.html

I think the concept of garbage collector roots should be clarified in
the manual somehow and linked to from 'Invoking guix gc'. Or it could
even go in that section.

I was surprised to find that the string 'gcroots' does not appear in the
manual.

> I was actually assuming that guix gc removes orphan packages,
> build-caches, temporary files etc., but it does not seem to only do that.

In your case, things that are not garbage collector roots (that is, not
reachable from /var/guix/gcroots) could be considered orphans or
temporary. I agree the documentation should be improved.

bug#24194: GUIX gc - add warning

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello,

Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name> skribis:

> On Tue, Aug 09, 2016 at 07:59:28PM -0400, J. Eppler wrote:
>> Hello,
>>  
>> I used GUIX for the first time and invoked: guix gc. The command deleted
>> all my bootstrap files (gcc, binutils, findutils etc.). There should be
>> a warning added to the manual page:
>> 
>> https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Invoking-guix-gc.html
>
> I think the concept of garbage collector roots should be clarified in
> the manual somehow and linked to from 'Invoking guix gc'. Or it could
> even go in that section.
>
> I was surprised to find that the string 'gcroots' does not appear in the
> manual.

I’ve now pushed some clarifications:

  https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/commit/?id=6a98b9f34e6190a2e1d11bedd5853aa94cf25ca7

Closing!

Thanks,
Ludo’.

bug#29662: bug#24194: GUIX gc - add warning

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi Quiliro,

Quiliro Ordonez Baca <quiliro@riseup.net> skribis:

>>> menuentry "GNU with Linux-Libre 4.12.9 (beta)"
>>> Kernel panic
>>
>> Could you paste (or take a picture) what’s on the screen?  Without this
>> we can’t draw any conclusions.
>
> I attach one photo. There are different messages. But, wouldn't it be
> rude to attach 6MB to the whole mailing list?

Please try to compress them more.  A few 100KiB is OK.

The picture you posted roughly shows:

  deleting group 'sshd'
  groupdel: existing lock file /etc/group.lock
  groupdel: cannot lock /etc/group
  …
  ERROR: no code for module (ice-9 popen)

The group.lock error above suggests it’s an old generation before commit
aad8a143000600abec5c8ebfadec4c09f34f1b73 (see
<https://bugs.gnu.org/28772>, 12 Oct. 2017).

The (ice-9 popen) issue that ensues, I don’t know; you should type “,bt”
at the prompt when that happens and report the backtrace.

But let’s ignore this one because it looks like an old generation.

>>> menuentry "GNU with Linux-Libre 4.11.6 (beta) (#1, 2017-06-21 18:01)"
>>> No GUI. Lost keyboad configuration on tty's. Logged in as user. The
>>> output of 'sudo herd status' was 'error: connect:
>>> /var/run/shepherd/socket: No existe el fichero o el directorio'.
>>
>> Sounds like the root file system is missing files.
>>
>> Can you send the content of /var/log/shepherd.log and the last ~100
>> lines of /var/log/messages for that config?
>
> /var/log/shepherd.log:
> 2017-12-19 20:40:53 Service console-font-tty2 has been started.

[...]

> 2017-12-19 20:41:44 Service ssh-daemon could not be started.

Apart from that last line I don’t see anything to worry about.

Are you sure you paste the log of this very generation where “sudo herd
status” fails?

> I understand you doubt that this happens because guix is not supposed to
> do it. I know I could have missed something, but I doubt it. Please give me the
> benefit of the doubt. It is important for me to confirm that guix does
> not have this bug. I can try to reproduce the problem with another installation.

I don’t doubt you’ve stumbled upon a bug!  I’m just trying to isolate
the various issues, and here it’s just too fuzzy for me to draw any
conclusion.

Do you have a working GuixSD configuration based on a recent-ish master?
Or a clear failure with a recent GuixSD configuration?

We should focus on just one issue at a time.

Thank you,
Ludo’.

bug#29662: bug#24194: GUIX gc - add warning

[Joshua Branson]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 3068 bytes --]

Hey,
Sorry to bother you guys, but I'm having trouble leaving this email list...

I've tried logging into the web interface, and that failed.

I tried emailing guix-devel-leave@gnu.org, and that didn't seam to work.

Can someone help me leave this email list?

Thanks,

Joshua
________________________________
From: bug-Guix <bug-guix-bounces+bransoj+bug-guix=hotmail.com@gnu.org> on behalf of Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>
Sent: Friday, December 22, 2017 4:46 AM
To: Quiliro Ordonez Baca
Cc: 29662@debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#29662: bug#24194: GUIX gc - add warning

Hi Quiliro,

Quiliro Ordonez Baca <quiliro@riseup.net> skribis:

>>> menuentry "GNU with Linux-Libre 4.12.9 (beta)"
>>> Kernel panic
>>
>> Could you paste (or take a picture) what’s on the screen?  Without this
>> we can’t draw any conclusions.
>
> I attach one photo. There are different messages. But, wouldn't it be
> rude to attach 6MB to the whole mailing list?

Please try to compress them more.  A few 100KiB is OK.

The picture you posted roughly shows:

  deleting group 'sshd'
  groupdel: existing lock file /etc/group.lock
  groupdel: cannot lock /etc/group
  …
  ERROR: no code for module (ice-9 popen)

The group.lock error above suggests it’s an old generation before commit
aad8a143000600abec5c8ebfadec4c09f34f1b73 (see
<https://bugs.gnu.org/28772>, 12 Oct. 2017).

The (ice-9 popen) issue that ensues, I don’t know; you should type “,bt”
at the prompt when that happens and report the backtrace.

But let’s ignore this one because it looks like an old generation.

>>> menuentry "GNU with Linux-Libre 4.11.6 (beta) (#1, 2017-06-21 18:01)"
>>> No GUI. Lost keyboad configuration on tty's. Logged in as user. The
>>> output of 'sudo herd status' was 'error: connect:
>>> /var/run/shepherd/socket: No existe el fichero o el directorio'.
>>
>> Sounds like the root file system is missing files.
>>
>> Can you send the content of /var/log/shepherd.log and the last ~100
>> lines of /var/log/messages for that config?
>
> /var/log/shepherd.log:
> 2017-12-19 20:40:53 Service console-font-tty2 has been started.

[...]

> 2017-12-19 20:41:44 Service ssh-daemon could not be started.

Apart from that last line I don’t see anything to worry about.

Are you sure you paste the log of this very generation where “sudo herd
status” fails?

> I understand you doubt that this happens because guix is not supposed to
> do it. I know I could have missed something, but I doubt it. Please give me the
> benefit of the doubt. It is important for me to confirm that guix does
> not have this bug. I can try to reproduce the problem with another installation.

I don’t doubt you’ve stumbled upon a bug!  I’m just trying to isolate
the various issues, and here it’s just too fuzzy for me to draw any
conclusion.

Do you have a working GuixSD configuration based on a recent-ish master?
Or a clear failure with a recent GuixSD configuration?

We should focus on just one issue at a time.

Thank you,
Ludo’.




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bug#29662: bug#24194: GUIX gc - add warning

[Adonay Felipe Nogueira]

Has the person who had the unsubscription issue already solved the
specific problem? I'm sending this message to person anyways, if you
received it twice, then you are still subscribed.

Can some list administrator confirm if the person is already
unsubscribed?

Finally, Joshua, I think we are discussing in bug-guix mailing list, not
guix-devel (I can see this because if I choose to reply to group, my
email client writes bug-guix email address in the To field of my
message).

2017-12-24T23:16:20+0000 Joshua Branson wrote:
> Hey,
> Sorry to bother you guys, but I'm having trouble leaving this email list...
>
> I've tried logging into the web interface, and that failed.
>
> I tried emailing guix-devel-leave@gnu.org, and that didn't seam to work. 
>
> Can someone help me leave this email list?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Joshua

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