> I understood that the best would be to create a separate profile > and have Musescore in it. > > But which version? > [...] > ................................................ > Or should I do it the other way round: > to put version 4.0 in a separate profile, > and keep version 3.6.2 in my main profile, > but AFAIU that would mean during updating > I will loose 3.6.2 for ever. > ................................................ You can still install 3.6.2 by using `guix time-machine`[1]. Nevertheless, I'm under impression we're missing something. Since I subscribed to the help-guix mailing list, I've seen at least 2 questions about `guix upgrade` giving some stupid errors. Experienced users then recommended using manifests instead. What has just been suggested to you and what we are considering now is - creating a profile using a manifest - and later updating that profile using `guix upgrade`. While this is possible, it seems we're missing the opportunity that manifests give us — to manage the already-existing profiles declaratively, through code. This way we can ditch the `guix upgrade` altogether. I believe this is what some of those people actually meant. Let me quote part of the `-m` option description from the "Invoking guix package" section of the Guix manual > --manifest=file > -m file > Create a new generation of the profile from the manifest object returned by the > Scheme code in file. This option can be repeated several times, in which case > the manifests are concatenated. > This allows you to declare the profile’s contents rather than constructing it > through a sequence of --install and similar commands. The advantage is that > file can be put under version control, copied to different machines to reproduce > the same profile, and so on. What does this mean? That instead of updating with shell commands like guix pull guix package --upgrade # optionally add `-p` option here you can update with guix pull guix package --manifest path/to/your/manifest.scm # optionally add `-p` option here Also, instead of installing new packages with e.g. guix package --install guile-frobnicator # optionally add `-p` option here you'd just include the desired package ("guile-frobnicator" in this case) in your manifest file and repeat the guix package --manifest path/to/your/manifest.scm # optionally add `-p` option here Now, there's one more thing worth noting. In order to install an older version of the musescore package with manifests, you can't just use the `guix time-machine` command as I suggested before. Or, well, you could but then *all* packages in the profile would end up being taken from an older guix version. Instead, manifests allow you to use Inferiors (described here[2]) which provide an analogous feature to `guix time-machine` but through a Guile API. I hope I helped and not made it unbearably complex to grasp 😅 Best luck, happy hacking, Wojtek [1] https://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/en/html_node/Invoking-guix-time_002dmachine.html#Invoking-guix-time_002dmachine [2] https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Inferiors.html -- (sig_start) website: https://koszko.org/koszko.html PGP: https://koszko.org/key.gpg fingerprint: E972 7060 E3C5 637C 8A4F 4B42 4BC5 221C 5A79 FD1A Meet Kraków saints! #43: saint Rafał Kalinowski Poznaj świętych krakowskich! #43: święty Rafał Kalinowski https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafał_Kalinowski -- (sig_end) On Wed, 21 Dec 2022 13:17:06 +0000 Gottfried wrote: > Thanks very much Csepp, > > I am getting closer to it. > ................................................. > I want to have Musescore 3.6.2 for long time, > and additionally Musescore 4.0. > > I understood that the best would be to create a separate profile > and have Musescore in it. > > But which version? > Should I put the version 3.6.2 in my new profile to keep it, > > and in my main profile during updating > it will eventually install version 4.0? > ................................................ > Or should I do it the other way round: > to put version 4.0 in a separate profile, > and keep version 3.6.2 in my main profile, > but AFAIU that would mean during updating > I will loose 3.6.2 for ever. > ................................................ > > When using "Guix shell", AFAIU, I would have to do it on a daily basis, > because every time I switch off my laptop, > its lost. Is it like that? > ................................................ > > Kind regards > > Gottfried > > > > Am 20.12.22 um 18:02 schrieb Csepp: > > > > Gottfried writes: > > > >> [[PGP Signed Part:Undecided]] > >> Hi Csepp, > >> > >> this was anyhow my question. > >> > >>>> In general you do not need to install packages under development in your > >>>>> main profile. It would be better to either put it in a separate profile > >>>>> or use a temporary shell every time and put the package definition in a > >>>>> manifest or script. > >> > >> > >> Until now I installed everything in my main profile > >> > >> 1. I don't know yet how to create a profile/manifest. > >> > >> I was reading the cookbook and the manual already several times about > >> that, but it seems to me difficult. > > > > A simple way to do it is: > > ``` > > guix shell --export-manifest python python-sympy | tee guix.scm > > ``` > > > > It even works with transforms, so let's say you were working on getting > > the newest version of Cutter running: > > ``` > > guix shell --export-manifest --with-latest=cutter cutter | tee guix.scm > > ``` > > > >> 2. If I create an other profile through a manifest > >> what is the benefit of it in my case? > > > > You can load the profile separately and it should be overlaid on top of > > your normal profile, shadowing the Musescore binary from it. > > The advantage of a persistent profile (as opposed to a manifest on its > > own) is that it will survive garbage collection, so you won't be > > building the same package again and again. > > > > Another benefit is that you can upgrade them separately. This is why I > > have TeXlive installed in a separate profile, because it is a several > > gigabyte download, so I'd rather not have to wait for it every time I > > upgrade my default profile. > > > >> 3. I would have to put all my 60 packages there (how?) and if I > >> download an other package, would I have to create the manifest again > >> and again? > > > > No. Profiles are not chroots, or containers, or VMs, or anything like > > that. Profiles can be composed. In fact, if you are using Guix System, > > you are already using two profiles stacked on top of each other: the > > system profile at /run/current-system and your default user profile at > > $HOME/.guix-profile. > > Packages installed in your system profile do not have to be installed in > > your user profile. You *can* install them in it, but it's not > > necessary. > > Similarly, if you install a different version of Musescore in a separate > > profile, that only has to contain Musescore and nothing else. > > I have a graphics profile and it only contains a few programs, like > > Blender, Inkscape, etc. But for example it does not have Emacs in it, > > because Emacs is loaded by my default user profile at > > $HOME/.guix-profile. > > > >> 4. And if I want to update the packages, lets say every second week, > >> then I would have to create the manifest again every second week. > > > > No, the manifest file stays the same. It's just a list of packages. > > To upgrade a persistent profile you can just use the usual method: > > ``` > > guix package --upgrade --profile=/path/to/profile > > ``` > > > > If you don't want to make a persistent profile, you can instead do: > > ``` > > guix shell --manifest=guix.scm > > ``` > > > >> 5. Would I then have to uninstall all my installed packages in the > >> main profile, in order not to have it twice? > > > > No, see above. > > Also having multiple version of a package installed is not a problem on > > Guix, only if they are in the same profile. You can have as many > > conflicting version as you want, they won't concflict if they are not in > > the same profile. > > > >> 6. How could I then use my manifest? Which commands would I have to > >> use to open it and to use my packages? > > > > For a temporary shell (see above on how to create guix.scm): > > ``` > > guix shell --manifest=guix.scm > > ``` > > > > For a persistent profile: > > ``` > > # first create the profile > > guix package --profile=/path/to/profile > > # then load it > > export GUIX_PROFILE=/path/to/profile > > source "${GUIX_PROFILE}/etc/profile" > > # alternatively: > > source /path/to/profile/etc/profile > > # there are some subtle differences between the two > > ``` > > > > Caveat for persistent profiles: > > if you modify the profile (for example by installing a new package in > > it) then you might have to load it again. > > More precisely: if the list of environment variables in the profile > > changes, you have to reload it. Otherwise if the GUIX_PROFILE > > environment variable was defined correctly when you first loaded it, > > then you don't have to reload it. > >