bug#47846: Feature Request: Add ability to disable having cache or generations

[bo0od <bo0od@riseup.net>]

 > It is common enough for desktop PCs and laptops, which is the use case
 > I'm talking about here.

The entire feature im requesting is not for common things but for 
specific use cases.

 > I'm fairly certain you should be able to get test environments, that
 > fit this size via `guix environment', but if that's your plan, you
 > shouldn't do much else with the space you have.

Im not sure im following how this solve the issue im describing.

 > Might I ask if you're
 > the kind to keep a separate /home?

No, I use everything default and try finding enhancements,bugs after 
that. (bugs easier to be reproduced by others when you have strange 
behaviors).

 > though of
 > course, Debian, Arch, Gentoo etc. are all different distributions, that
 > produce it as a side-effect of what they're actually trying to do.

"as a side-effect" not sure what do you mean.

 > How did other distributions "adopt this feature" in your opinion?

Not sure how is this question correct as other distributions doesnt have 
rollback/generations..etc options in order to adopt anything from others 
except NixOS which i didnt yet asked them about this (I hope i wont be 
forced to use Nix instead of Guix).

Good projects to look at which are actually rolling distros:

Voidlinux(xbps)<- Good starting point/features, Arch(pacman).
Worth mentioning: Kali(apt), Gentoo(portage).

And if Nix going to provide such a similar feature then that would be 
interested to check on as well (maybe easier way to see it as well 
implemented within guix).

Leo Prikler:
> Hi,
> 
> Am Sonntag, den 18.04.2021, 18:45 +0000 schrieb bo0od:
>>   > My bad, I meant to type 500GB (a fairly common disk size), but it
>> turns
>>   > out my other laptop survives quite fine on 250.  Fair enough, it's
>> not
>>   > 32GB (common in phones), but then again, you'd run normally very
>>   > different packages on embedded systems.
>>
>> yeah 100+ GB thats too big, not always having this space is easy or
>> available.
> It is common enough for desktop PCs and laptops, which is the use case
> I'm talking about here.  If you're hosting a server, chances also are,
> that you have that much, if not more space available.  For cases, in
> which you have significantly less memory available, there is a bare-
> bones template.
> 
>>   > There are several ways of optimizing for profile size, one of
>> which is
>>   > to not run huge browsers like icecat.  I have no idea what kind of
>>   > system you're trying to fit into 20GB , but a hard idea thinking
>> it's
>>   > the right kind.
>>
>> I have debian,fedora,kali,ubuntu,trisquel/triskel,arch... all with
>> only
>> 20GB space and working for testing purposes as im mostly working as
>> software tester.
> I'm fairly certain you should be able to get test environments, that
> fit this size via `guix environment', but if that's your plan, you
> shouldn't do much else with the space you have.  Might I ask if you're
> the kind to keep a separate /home?
> 
>>   > What kind of advanced removal strategies are you talking about?
>>
>> I didnt suggested how its done in my ticket, I gave the issue and
>> feature request as a solution to it but how to do it the best way i
>> leave this to the devs to decide not me.
> "Please remove all my previous stuff whenever I upgrade a package" is a
> rather specific feature request in my opinion.  I don't think there is
> much room for bikeshedding different implementations of it, though of
> course, Debian, Arch, Gentoo etc. are all different distributions, that
> produce it as a side-effect of what they're actually trying to do.
> 
>> If out of ideas and nothing is available look at other distributions
>> and
>> see how its done and what can be taken from them and merge into guix
>> to
>> adopt this feature.
> How did other distributions "adopt this feature" in your opinion?
> 
> Regards,
> Leo
>