Re: Proposal: nss updates

[Ian Eure <ian@retrospec.tv>]

Hi Felix,

Felix Lechner <felix.lechner@lease-up.com> writes:

> Hi Ian,
>
> On Thu, Jun 27 2024, Ian Eure wrote:
>
>> The nss package updates frequently, around once a month. [...] 
>> I'm
>> considering options to balance update frequency vs. huge 
>> rebuilds.
>
> Your plan sounds reasonable but my opinion is inconsequential. 
> Instead,
> I'd like to point out that you are not alone:
>
> Wouldn't you like it if two days a month were set aside to allow 
> uploads
> that trigger large rebuilds?  The approach would pool intensive 
> uploads
> in the time domain rather than how we do it now in space, namely
> branches.
>

I think this is probably a good idea, though the implementation 
might be difficult to manage.  I’m not sure where the patches 
would go if not some short-lived branch, so we’d still likely have 
the space complexity.  A one-month timebox for large changes, 
where they merge or get backed out at the end, seems like it could 
be a reasonable way to break down some of the long-running 
branches.

One thing we should be considerate of is users with limited 
bandwidth.  Even if Guix has the compute to build and bandwidth to 
serve, not all of its users will.

Thanks,

  — Ian