Re: Using Guix archive (Help!)

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

On Sat, Jan 06, 2018 at 01:46:18PM +0100, Ricardo Wurmus wrote:
> I’m not sure, but it seems wrong.  What I used to do is to create a
> profile and export that recursively:
> 
>   guix archive --export --recursive \
>     $(readlink -f /project/.guix-profile) | \
>     gzip --stdout - > my-profile.nar.gz
> 
> This should include propagated inputs.

I'll try that again, but it does not appear to be so elegant. Besides
an archive is an archive ;). It should be a 'closure'.

> > 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?
> 
> I don’t think you can.  It’s a custom format implemented by
> nix/libutil/archive.cc.

Yes, we ought to do something about that. Nix nar files could be be
unpacked before. I'll take a look at that. Not goot to have obscure
formats.

> >   Q4: is there a nice way to include a profile path in the store that
> >       can be used quickly?
> 
> What do you mean by “include … in the store”?  With the above command to
> recursively export profiles you get a single archive that can be
> imported to the store as a profile.

It is elegant (if it works) and not elegant at the same time. I am
thinking more of a symlink -S option like we have with pack.

> >   Q5: is there an elegant way to add those unpacked store items to the
> >   database?
> 
> What unpacked store items do you mean?

I mean how to add the contents of a pack image to the store. What
archive does, but then via the pack command.

Well, if archive works properly, pack does not need to do anything ;)

I know pack serves one purpose - deployment without guix - archive
another - deployment with guix. It is that archive is not working so
well, right now. pack could be supporting deployment on guix and
archive could behave a bit more like pack.

I'll take a look at the archive format.

Pj.