Re: how can I open files through packages installed in different profiles

[Ian Eure <ian@retrospec.tv>]

Hi gfp,

gfp <gfp@posteo.at> writes:

> I have got 17 Profiles in:
> /home/gfp/Projekte/Calibre
> 		  /Emacs
> 		  /Libreoffice
> 		  etc.
>
>  Would that mean to sorce all 17 profiles in one go? or only two 
>  at a time?

I agree with Steve: you shouldn’t use profiles like this.  By 
activating all these profiles at once, you’re effectively creating 
a single profile with the combined packages of all 17.  But since 
this is done in an ad-hoc way, outside Guix, it’s missing 
functionality, such as telling you about conflicts, building the 
XDG MIME database, font cache, etc.  This is very likely going to 
cause further bugs and problems.

If you put the software you regularly use into your main profile, 
the system works better and your problem goes away without needing 
to mess with shell startup.

Engineering is all about making tradeoffs.  With the downsides 
you’ve noted, and the complexity of managing it, I’d expect there 
to be a very strong and specific upside from such a system which 
can’t be replicated with a one-profile setup.  I may have missed 
it, but I don’t see such a rationale here.

I strongly urge you to reconsider your approach.

  -- Ian