Using Guix archive (Help!)

[Pjotr Prins <pjotr.public12@thebird.nl>]

Hi,

I am trying to send a NAR archive to Fred. We are facing a few issues.
First I created the archive

   env GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH=../guix-bioinformatics/ ./pre-inst-env guix archive --export -r --no-grafts genenetwork2 > gn2.nar

and Fred installed the key and unpacked it. Unfortunately it does not
contain package dependencies, such as mysql:

   https://gitlab.com/genenetwork/guix-bioinformatics/blob/master/gn/packages/genenetwork.scm#L194

somehow propagated-inputs don't go into the archive. You'd think they are critical
dependencies.

  Q1: is that to be expected? 

NAR files are signed. I think it would be very useful to be able to
distribute unsigned NAR files.

  Q2: can signing/checking be made optional?

I can't view the contents.

  Q3: how do we view the contents of a NAR file without unpacking it?

and

  Q4: is there a nice way to include a profile path in the store that
      can be used quickly?

The alternative is tarballing an environment/container, but the
problem there is that Fred's Guix daemon won't be aware of the new
packages. We want to avoid using Docker.

  Q5: is there an elegant way to add those unpacked store items to the
  database?

Thanks! I tried using NAR Files before and gave up. I hope it is clear
why.

Pj.