Re: Planning for the next release

[ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)]

Hi Leo!

(sirgazil: this is about providing a ready-to-use VM image of GuixSD for
download, in addition to the installation image.  See at the bottom.)

Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name> skribis:

> I think the name should be "guixsd-vm-image-VERSION", since this follows
> the convention established with `guix system vm-image`.

Sounds good.

> I've attached some rough patches for guix.git and guix-artwork.git.
>
> I'm confused about `make release`. The for-loop that builds the disk
> images doesn't seem to set up offloading or actually build the images
> for the different values of $SUPPORTED_SYSTEMS [0]. Am I missing this
> somewhere?

As discussed on IRC, there was a typo fixed in
6344e959ea45c283a0c7a2091f0959f8e09a198d.  As for offloading, the target
assumes that the user has set it up correctly.

> For the web-site, I'm struggling to set up a development environment
> where I can run (export-web-site) and test my changes.

I’ll add a guix.scm there.

> From 6ae03aa362b3542590e12c0ab2b65af127bdb00d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name>
> Date: Sat, 13 May 2017 20:44:36 -0400
> Subject: [PATCH 1/2] doc: Mention the pre-built VM image.
>
> * doc/guix.texi (Running GuixSD in a VM): Mention the pre-built VM image.

OK.  I think this commit can be squashed with the next one.

What about explicitly mentioning VPS, as in:

- If you’d like to install GuixSD in a virtual machine (VM)
+ @cindex virtual private server (VPS)
+ @cindex VPS (virtual private server)
+ If you’d like to install GuixSD in a virtual machine (VM)
+ in a virtual machine (VM) or on a virtual private server (VPS)

?

> From 30effa15369a1707755d134e37e63e2df135422e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name>
> Date: Sat, 13 May 2017 18:07:01 -0400
> Subject: [PATCH 2/2] maint: The 'release' target builds a VM image.
>
> * Makefile.am (GUIXSD_VM_SYSTEMS, GUIXSD_VM_IMAGE_BASE,
> GUIXSD_VM_IMAGE_SIZE): New variables.
> (release): Add logic to build a VM image.

[...]

> +	  image=`$(top_builddir)/pre-inst-env						\
> +	    guix system vm-image							\
> +	    --image-size=$(GUIXSD_VM_IMAGE_SIZE)					\
> +	    gnu/system/install.scm` ;							\

So you need --system=$$system as well.  :-)

Otherwise LGTM.

> From 584a9dfb224de28dc40692d2957d2301952378c2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name>
> Date: Sun, 14 May 2017 15:03:57 -0400
> Subject: [PATCH] website: downloads: Mention the VM image.
>
> * website/www/download.scm (%vm-image-description, %vm-image-manual,
> %vm-image-image): New variables.
> (guixsd-vm-image-files): New procedure.
> (download-page): Use guixsd-vm-image-files.

[...]

> --- a/website/www/download.scm
> +++ b/website/www/download.scm
> @@ -62,6 +62,15 @@ dependencies.")
>  (define %guix-src-image
>    "src-package.png")
>  
> +(define %vm-image-description
> +  "Virtual machine (QEMU) image of GuixSD.")
> +
> +(define %vm-image-manual
> +  "manual/html_node/Running-GuixSD-in-a-VM.html")
> +
> +(define %vm-image-image
> +  "GuixSD-package.png")
> +
>  (define (ftp-url file)
>    (string-append "ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/guix/" file))
>  
> @@ -75,6 +84,12 @@ dependencies.")
>                                              "-linux.xz"))))
>         archs))
>  
> +(define (guixsd-vm-image-files archs)
> +  (map (lambda (arch)
> +         (cons arch (https-url (string-append "guixsd-vm-image-"
> +                                              (latest-guix-version) "." arch
> +                                              "-linux.xz"))))))
> +
>  (define (guix-files archs)
>    (map (lambda (arch)
>           (cons arch (https-url (string-append "guix-binary-" (latest-guix-version)
> @@ -150,7 +165,12 @@ Linux-based system.")
>                              #:files (guix-source-files '("tarball"))
>                              #:description %source-tarball-description
>                              #:manual %source-tarball-manual
> -                            #:image %guix-src-image))
> +                            #:image %guix-src-image)
> +             ,(download-box (string-append "GuixSD " (latest-guix-version))
> +                            #:files (guixsd-vm-image-files '("x86_64"))
> +                            #:description %vm-image-description
> +                            #:manual %vm-image-manual
> +                            #:image %guixsd-vm-image))

sirgazil: do you think we should add a special icon or something for the
VM image?

Otherwise LGTM!

Thanks,
Ludo’.