From: Danny Milosavljevic <dannym@scratchpost.org>
To: "Ludovic Courtès" <ludo@gnu.org>
Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Explicitly pass grub to install, install-grub*, install-grub, initialize-hard-disk and qemu-image.
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2016 16:12:51 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20161111161251.1a609333@scratchpost.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <87wpgbqn1n.fsf@gnu.org>
Hi Ludo,
> I prefer that setting PATH to point to the right GRUB, rather than
> having to carry the directory name of GRUB in 10 different places.
I much prefer not having a magical non-Guile variable influence which bootloader (!) is installed. Of all things this is the most sensitive part of the installation process - if the bootloader doesn't work you can't even emergency-boot - and it depends on PATH being set correctly at some remote place.
I think it's much better not to have spooky action at a distance.
> This is the approach taken in several places, such as (gnu system vm):
> we set PATH, and then we can happily call functions that in turn expect
> commands in $PATH.
>
> Danny, what led you to this patch? :-)
When I read the source I couldn't find which grub-install executable it invokes (and how that even works) and neither could anyone on the list for months (I asked). I think for maintenance it's much better not to use PATH but rather be explicit about which package it is.
This is part of the u-boot and grub-efi effort. Of course it's optional to do it - grub, u-boot and grub-efi can work with PATH as well. But should they?
However if we aren't explicit about it then the next person will have to search around just like I did.
Also it would keep being a Damocles' sword over our heads - if someone modifies PATH (in the Guix source code, by accident) it will just pick up a random grub (maybe Debian's if it's installed on a foreign distro - who knows?).
prev parent reply other threads:[~2016-11-11 15:13 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2016-11-10 9:09 [PATCH] Explicitly pass grub to install, install-grub*, install-grub, initialize-hard-disk and qemu-image Danny Milosavljevic
2016-11-10 15:04 ` Marius Bakke
2016-11-10 17:09 ` Ludovic Courtès
2016-11-11 15:12 ` Danny Milosavljevic [this message]
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