RE: [swh-devel] Call for public review - SWH Nix/GNU Guix stack

["Antoine R. Dumont (@ardumont)" <ardumont@softwareheritage.org>]

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>> My understanding is that so far these URLs were ignored by the
>> lister/loader because they didn’t end in *.tar.*.⁰

FWIW, in the "new" lister [1] implementation, there are a bunch of extra
computations done [1] to try and resolve those situations. It's trying
to fetch more information from upstream server (e.g. crates urls which
ends in /download, ...) now. It's probably not exhaustive though.

[1] https://gitlab.softwareheritage.org/swh/devel/swh-lister/-/blob/master/swh/lister/nixguix/lister.py?ref_type=heads

>> I’m sure Simon Tournier (Cc’d) already discussed with others at SWH
>> how crucial it is for us to be able to query content by nar hash.

> So yeah, we are looking forward to some ExtID interface.  :-)

Yes, and there is an ongoing merge request about the new interface [2]

[2] https://gitlab.softwareheritage.org/swh/devel/swh-web/-/merge_requests/1220

Cheers,
tony / Antoine R. Dumont (@ardumont)

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Simon TOURNIER <simon.tournier@inserm.fr> writes:

> Hi,
>
>> The initial NixGuix loader (currently in production) lists and loads
>> origins from a manifest, ignoring the specific origins mentioned above. The
>> new stack will be able to ingest those origins. It will also optionally
>> associate, if present, a NAR hash (specific intrinsic identifier to Nix and
>> Guix) to what’s called an ExtID (SWH side).
>
> Cool!  Thank you.
>
>> Regarding the SWH API reading side of the ExtID though is a work to be done.
>
> In short, currently Guix relies on SWH API for resolving from
> “something” to SWHID, where “something” can be:
>
>  + Git label tag + url
>  + Git commit hash
>  + plain url
>
> Well, the situation is in good shape IMHO – I do not have recent
> numbers, say all is fine for 75% of all Guix packages and for 90% of
> Guix packages coming from some Git repositories – but still, we have
> examples where “Git label tag + url” fails.  For one instance, see [1]
> pointed by [2].
>
> The information – history of history – is there in SWH but it would
> require on Guix side to parse the snapshot information and extract as
> best as possible; trying several SWH snapshots until a match.  Something
> like that.  Chance of success until completion?  Weak. :-)
>
> Moreover, what about the missing 25%?  They are Guix packages coming
> from Mercurial repositories or from Subversion repositories or some
> others.
>
> Back on October 2020, we had discussion [3] for sending a save request
> for packages using SVN checkouts but at the time we did not have a clear
> path for retrieving.  Then on March 2023, maybe an path for retrieving
> with this discussion [4]… but still many hacks are required [5].
>
> Again, the information is there in SWH but it would require on Guix side
> to parse the snapshot information and extract as best as possible;
> trying several SWH snapshots until a match.  Something like that.
> Chance of success until completion?  Weak. :-)
>
> If only one source is missing, all the castle potentially falls down.  Somehow,
> a dictionary from ExtID as nar hash to SWHID would help to have the
> castle more robust. :-)
>
> The SWH archive coverage of Guix packages would not be 75% because we, on
> Guix side, are not able to know or retrieve these missing 25%.  Such dictionary
> could reinforce the bridge between reproducible computational environment 
> and archiving, IMHO.
>
> So yeah, we are looking forward to some ExtID interface.  :-)
>
> Cheers,
> simon
>
>
> 1: https://issues.guix.gnu.org/66015#0-lineno53
> 2: https://gitlab.softwareheritage.org/swh/devel/swh-loader-git/-/issues/4751#note_148587
> 3: https://issues.guix.gnu.org/43442#9
> 4: https://sympa.inria.fr/sympa/arc/swh-devel/2023-03/msg00009.html
> 5: https://issues.guix.gnu.org/43442#13

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