Re: Building guix-modular with cuirass

[Chris Marusich <cmmarusich@gmail.com>]

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Nils Gillmann <ng0@n0.is> writes:

> Ludovic Courtès transcribed 800 bytes:
>>
>> In the near future, I want ‘guix pull’ to install a ‘guix’ binary as
>> opposed to simply dropping a bunch of modules in ~/.config/guix/latest.
>> At that point we won’t have this kind of problem anymore.
>> 
>> Ludo’.
>> 
>
> Not trying to derail this thread too much, but could you explain that a
> bit more Ludovic? I'm curious.
> This is moving beyond the current change with modular guix (which still
> drops a bunch of modules into the store and compiles them), correct?

I think he's referring to his latest comments here:

https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=22629

Today, the "guix" command is a thin wrapper, as explained here:

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-guix/2017-09/msg00092.html

Going forward, I think Ludo is suggesting that we should no longer rely
on the thin wrapper to delegate business logic to whatever is installed
in ~/.config/guix/latest; instead, "guix pull" would basically build a
new Guix (including the "guix" command) in a profile located at
~/.config/guix/current.  Each user would use their own "guix" command.

Currently, when a user invokes a command like "guix package -i foo", the
path of execution is roughly like this:

1. /run/current-system/profile/bin/guix (or, if it's a foreign
distribution and the user has installed Guix according to the manual,
this will be /usr/local/bin/guix, which points to
/var/guix/profiles/per-user/root/guix-profile/bin/guix)
2. ~/.config/guix/latest/${whatever_module_was_invoked}

But after the proposed improvement, the path of execution would be:

1. ~/.config/guix/current/bin/guix
2. ~/.config/guix/current/${whatever_module_was_invoked}

So, every Guix installation would truly be self-contained, unlike the
current situation, where the same thin "guix" command is shared by every
user.  And since ~/.config/guix/current is basically just a profile, I
think we'd also get roll-back for free, which is nice because currently
roll-back after a "guix pull" isn't as easy as it could be

Ludo, please feel free to correct me if I'm misrepresenting anything.

-- 
Chris

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