GC hints

["Ludovic Courtès" <ludo@gnu.org>]

Hi!

Pierre Neidhardt <mail@ambrevar.xyz> skribis:

>        (if profile
>            (display-hint (format #f (G_ "Consider deleting old profile
> -generations and collecting garbage, along these lines:
> +generations, deleting old Guix checkouts and collecting garbage, along these
> +lines:
>  
>  @example
> -guix package -p ~s --delete-generations=1m
> -guix gc
> -@end example\n")
> -                                profile))
> +guix package --profile=~s --delete-generations=1m
> +guix package --profile=~s --delete-generations=1m
> +guix gc --free-space=5G
> +@end example
> +
> +You might also want to delete old non-default profiles in
> +/var/guix/gcroots/auto.")
> +                                profile
> +                                (string-append (config-directory #:ensure? #f) "/current")))

I agree that this would be more accurate, but isn’t there also a risk
with making hints too long?  I’m split between the idea of providing
concise hints that can be pasted and get things done, and the idea or
not trying to be a substitute for the manual.

Actually, I was also wondering whether we should provide a configurable
mechanism that would, by default, automatically delete old GC roots and
maybe even run the GC automatically when needed—similar to what Git
does.

Thoughts?

Ludo’.