Re: ~/.guix-profile/manifest usage with "guix package -m [manifest]" / "guix pack -m [manifest]" etc..

[ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)]

Hello,

George Clemmer <myglc2@gmail.com> skribis:

> YOANN hit an error when trying to do 'guix package -m
> ~/.guix-profile/manifest'. Why would one want to do this? Maybe to
> (re)produce a configuration previously reached by a series of 'guix
> package -i' operations?

I agree this would be nice, but be aware that this is not quite possible
because those files don’t have enough information to rebuild packages.

Starting from a few weeks/months ago, ~/.guix-profile/manifest records
upstream VCS information, like this:

     ("libreoffice"
      "6.1.2.1"
      "out"
      "/gnu/store/y4l3r7nh0dg3d8qaifz96ffab4jpjl3s-libreoffice-6.1.2.1"
      (propagated-inputs ())
      (search-paths ())
      (properties
        (provenance
          (repository
            (version 0)
            (url "https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git")
            (branch "master")
            (commit
              "f8e710684e5c3f866413dff825ba17bdffceac5d")))))

With this info and with inferiors and channels, it becomes possible to
rebuild the package (if we make simplifying assumptions.)

So I understand the need and agree that it would be nice.  But for now,
I strongly recommend “manifests as passed to ‘guix package -m’” because
they’re much more expressive, especially with the introduction of the
inferior API:

  https://issues.guix.info/issue/32759

HTH!

Ludo’.