bug#72495: `guix --version` not really helpful

bug#72495: `guix --version` not really helpful

[Stéfane Fermigier]

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When I type:

guix --version

I get:

guix (GNU Guix) 6689a96ce86497299bd29f183b744116fd2d6e32

That's not really helpful (i.e. it doesn't tell how old / up to date my
system is). A proper version number (e.g. "x.y.z-devel", etc.) and/or a
date would be nice.

  S.

-- 
Stefane Fermigier - http://fermigier.com/ - http://twitter.com/sfermigier -
http://linkedin.com/in/sfermigier
Founder & CEO, Abilian - Enterprise Social Software -
http://www.abilian.com/
Founder & Software Architect - Nua & Hop3 open source PaaS project -
https://nua.rocks/  / https://hop3.cloud/
Co-Founder & Co-Chairman, National Council for Free & Open Source Software
(CNLL) - http://cnll.fr/
Co-Founder & Board Member, Association Professionnelle Européenne du
Logiciel Libre (APELL) - https://www.apell.info/

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bug#72495:

[Ashvith Shetty]

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Hello Stéfane,
I've noticed that while using `guix shell guix -- guix --version`, it works
fine:

$ guix shell guix -- guix --versionguix (GNU Guix)
1.4.0-23.843b85cCopyright (C) 2024 the Guix authorsLicense GPLv3+: GNU
GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>This is free
software: you are free to change and redistribute it.There is NO
WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

However, when it is the system-wide `guix --version`, it does not:

$ guix --versionguix (GNU Guix)
892a915c08736c873a950bb2b44a6d0f49aea1d2Copyright (C) 2024 the Guix
authorsLicense GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>This is free software: you are free
to change and redistribute it.There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by law.

This is just me speculating, but I think that the script `build-aux
<https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/build-aux>/git-version-gen
<https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/build-aux/git-version-gen>`,
which is supposed to set versions from the most recent annotated tags,
isn't working the way it is supposed to be, at least while building the
system-wide guix command.

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bug#72495: `guix --version` not really helpful

[Simon Tournier]

Hi,

On Tue, 06 Aug 2024 at 12:14, Stéfane Fermigier <sf@fermigier.com> wrote:
> When I type:
>
> guix --version
>
> I get:
>
> guix (GNU Guix) 6689a96ce86497299bd29f183b744116fd2d6e32
>
> That's not really helpful (i.e. it doesn't tell how old / up to date my system is). A proper version number (e.g. "x.y.z-devel", etc.) and/or a date
> would be nice.

Maybe what you want is “guix describe”.  For instance, it outputs:

    $ guix describe
    Generation 8	Sep 09 2024 15:14:29	(current)
      guix 056910e
        repository URL: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git
        commit: 056910ec864cb7cf3225a0c27679d94405db7dcd

It does not tell how old or up-to-date your system is but it informs you
about your last “guix pull”.  It seems a good starts.

About a proper version number, I am not convinced it suits well some
rolling-release.  Troll inside. ;-)

Cheers,
simon