/gnu/store

/gnu/store

[Gottfried]

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Hi Guixers,
After guix pull und guix update I have a new Emacs Version, Emacs 28

1. My earlier created icon for emacs, in Mate Desktop, opens the older 
Version Emacs 27.2
How to fix it?

2. Opening /gnu/store/ in Mate Caja (File Manager) takes ages.
To look for a the Emacs 28.1 file takes also ages.
Is there a quicker way to search for some directories in /gun/store?
May be in the terminal emulator? With which commands?

I want to change the command for opening emacs in the starter,now 
version 27.2 change into emacs 28. So that the emacs icon in the toolbar 
opens Emacs 28. Or is the simplest way deleting the icon and after every 
new emacs version creating a new icon?
If I do a "emacs -ProfileManager" it opens the emacs 28, but does not 
give me a possibility to set a new Profile.


3. Can somebody explain to me the structure of /gnu/store?
How is it structured? It seems to me there are several directories for 
the same package. Is there a structure at all?
I would like to understand how it works und according to which principle 
it is created?
Some files start with the number 0, others with 1, others with 2, others 
with numbers.
Can I see according to the name which are older, which are newer?
Is the long name randomly created and so long because there are so many 
directories and files?

Can I sort them according to packages e.g?
The date is allways the same, so there is no possibility according to 
the date to sort them.

thanks in advance
I am "hacking" at the basics
Gottfried




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Re: /gnu/store

[Giovanni Biscuolo]

Hello Gottfried,

are you using Guix System or Guix on a foreign distro?

Gottfried <gottfried@posteo.de> writes:

> Hi Guixers,
> After guix pull und guix update I have a new Emacs Version, Emacs 28
>
> 1. My earlier created icon for emacs, in Mate Desktop, opens the older 
> Version Emacs 27.2
> How to fix it?

have you tried logging out and in?

> 2. Opening /gnu/store/ in Mate Caja (File Manager) takes ages.

AFAIK it takes ages in every file manager

you'd better use "find" (man find) from your terminal if you want to
find a package in /gnu/store, see below

> To look for a the Emacs 28.1 file takes also ages.

What is "the Emacs 28.1 file"?

> Is there a quicker way to search for some directories in /gun/store?
> May be in the terminal emulator? With which commands?

yes: use the CLI in a terminal

to have the (too long) directory listing: "ls -lah /gnu/store"

to serach for every first level only directory having "emacs" in its
name under /gnu/store: "find /gnu/store -maxdepth 1 -type d -name '*emacs*'"

then you can inspect the store for each installed package,
e.g. "/gnu/store/r1zd92x4bh8zfz16rj9gh66pr950x2zr-emacs-guix-0.5.2-5.c9aef52"
with ls or Caja if you want

> I want to change the command for opening emacs in the starter,now 
> version 27.2 change into emacs 28. So that the emacs icon in the toolbar 
> opens Emacs 28. Or is the simplest way deleting the icon and after every 
> new emacs version creating a new icon?

You cannot change the .desktop files used to start applications
installed via Guix since they are stored read-only in the store

It's "just" a matter to refresh your graphical menu an usually we need
to logout and login (at least on a foreign distro)

> If I do a "emacs -ProfileManager" it opens the emacs 28

AFAIU you are starting emacs from a terminal, and yes: it starts emacs
28 because it does not use the *.desktop file used by the graphical menu
(which have the 27.2 version hardcoded in it)

> but does not  give me a possibility to set a new Profile.

AFAIK "ProfileManager" is not a valid emacs option :-)

> 3. Can somebody explain to me the structure of /gnu/store?

Please read the Guix manual at "8.9 The Store"

AFAIK the store is set read-only **but** in any case /do not/ directly
write to the store, it is accessed by the guix-daemon via the various
"guix..." command

use the guix cli (or the great emacs-guix interface [1]) to explore your
packages (et al)

[...]

> The date is allways the same,

it's a reproducibility requirement: our software is /eternal/ B-)

[...]

> thanks in advance
> I am "hacking" at the basics
> Gottfried

Happy hacking! Gio'



[1] I had to apply a workaround to make it working https://issues.guix.gnu.org/55013#2


[...]

-- 
Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures

Re: /gnu/store

[Thiago Jung Bauermann]

Hello,

Giovanni Biscuolo <g@xelera.eu> writes:

>> To look for a the Emacs 28.1 file takes also ages.
>
> What is "the Emacs 28.1 file"?

I assume they mean the Emacs executable.

You can look for the Emacs executable currently present in your Guix
profile by looking into the ~/.guix-profile/bin directory. It's small
enough that you can explore it with a file manager, unlike /gnu/store.
It's also simple to check from a terminal, for example with the command
“ls -l ~/.guix-profile/bin/emacs”.

>> I want to change the command for opening emacs in the starter,now 
>> version 27.2 change into emacs 28. So that the emacs icon in the toolbar 
>> opens Emacs 28. Or is the simplest way deleting the icon and after every 
>> new emacs version creating a new icon?
>
> You cannot change the .desktop files used to start applications
> installed via Guix since they are stored read-only in the store

It's possible to override the system-installed .desktop files by
creating new ones in ~/.local/share/applications.

This can be done more easily with a menu editor such as ‘kmenuedit’ in
KDE. I don't know what the Mate equivalent would be. A quick web search
suggests there are both ‘Alacarte’ and ‘Mozo’ but it looks like neither
of them are packaged in Guix unfortunately.

> It's "just" a matter to refresh your graphical menu an usually we need
> to logout and login (at least on a foreign distro)
>
>> 3. Can somebody explain to me the structure of /gnu/store?
>
> Please read the Guix manual at "8.9 The Store"
>
> AFAIK the store is set read-only **but** in any case /do not/ directly
> write to the store, it is accessed by the guix-daemon via the various
> "guix..." command
>
> use the guix cli (or the great emacs-guix interface [1]) to explore your
> packages (et al)
>
> [...]

Reading the manual section about the store as Giovanni suggested is of
course the best way to learn about the /gnu/store organization, but a
quick explanation about the weird directory and file names there is that
the soup of numbers and letters at the beginning is a random but
deterministic identifier of that particular file or package, and is
based on the source code of the package and the environment needed to
build it. If you change anything at all about the file/package or how it
is produced, then the identifier changes as well. This helps Guix
provide its reproducibility properties.

-- 
Thanks
Thiago