From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Chris Marusich Subject: Why don't we have "Guix channels"? Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2016 23:29:39 -0800 Message-ID: <87y3zptva4.fsf@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="=-=-="; micalg=pgp-sha256; protocol="application/pgp-signature" Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:47016) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cFFdr-00051N-OC for guix-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 09 Dec 2016 02:30:55 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cFFdl-0004p5-Nh for guix-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 09 Dec 2016 02:30:51 -0500 Received: from mail-pg0-f41.google.com ([74.125.83.41]:36513) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cFFdl-0004og-8T for guix-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 09 Dec 2016 02:30:45 -0500 Received: by mail-pg0-f41.google.com with SMTP id f188so4995880pgc.3 for ; Thu, 08 Dec 2016 23:30:45 -0800 (PST) Received: from garuda (c-24-18-189-215.hsd1.wa.comcast.net. [24.18.189.215]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id g27sm54846321pfk.58.2016.12.08.23.29.43 for (version=TLS1_2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 bits=256/256); Thu, 08 Dec 2016 23:29:43 -0800 (PST) List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Guix-devel" To: guix-devel@gnu.org --=-=-= Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hi, Nix has a feature called "channels". To quote the docs, "a channel is a Nix mechanism for distributing Nix expressions and associated binaries" [1]. It sounds like this includes the nix tools like "nix-build", but I'm not sure. In any case, it's clearly similar to "guix pull", but at first blush channels seems more featureful and more useful. Here are some features: * A user can "subscribe" [2] to multiple channels ("stable", "unstable", etc.). * "Correctness: The channel is only updated to a new revision of NixOS/Nixpkgs if it passes certain tests" [3]. * "Efficiency: The channel is only updated after all Hydra builds in that revision have finished, *and* all binaries have been mirrored" [3]. * "In principle, you can do rollbacks on the channels profile ("nix-env -p /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels --rollback") if you don't like the result of a 'nix-channel --update'" [3]. These all sound like features which would be nice to have in Guix, so I wonder: why doesn't Guix have "channels", too? For more information about Nix channels, see here (Eelco's thesis [4] includes more technical details - search it for the word "channel"): [1] https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/#sec-upgrading [2] https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#sec-channels [3] https://nixos.org/wiki/Install/remove_software#nix-channels [4] http://nixos.org/%7Eeelco/pubs/phd-thesis.pdf =2D-=20 Chris --=-=-= Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIzBAEBCAAdFiEEy/WXVcvn5+/vGD+x3UCaFdgiRp0FAlhKXWMACgkQ3UCaFdgi Rp32kQ//Xt2Ck03Y8z4Lrtm+1KunWs/kbl/0Gogo4YwfMVmHxqqMwF79SoTEsL5F DyuYO+x50DChGMqCklr/+ZirY0IGyu7k8Dsf0gsfsFXt3BnAx31iIdbSPfh62HkX 1W2bTZJ/PTGdCkMPc9mygS87CWcaFXuM91a4OvurjvPOWE9FzByawBT741cS/gdn K3XRjHaZJsHpdXzEWBh2AkHEVB5XtvEFBeOeLIVuzNnHANy+9fnZ0RMzZMJnsu2u /tnqSfoM4XMzH81QgNw4PnTodlDDNkL1JfyfOsarQfKIqn9lMkACL0XlXM1fL9zq lmejYKBUmgIvYgJR4Sbp/ytt0i1grAFf/P1Kg4GiGyJtAKPOYymyDEKFzUfMeDjQ u2MvQucxR+XmC2+1HLIFdtLxRTSkysc1aHGiiR3fgess0IHcRb3iCgSS/0C00Mhw udYYhQD2U1G2BqZ7du1QPbpc/ZtbFNPSfUqHc9qz4m00WD0Jgn5QjTbiMGRfwTkg np1+NVqtBwLG3S9PsaO7TGixWnYGRJh2mNAwwWLTplL2VnEMzC3MxYeqf5/RuI1C zNnQ523jeG5dcSdg+l4Zz1a/6bq3/qBXHxRzL7OP+EPjMvX02+vphx4YanXyvaoZ xgtGaGq3FsZw2V/R0+qnVm7Te20T0cXPFYAZSZwVRWGGGg8LAuU= =XdHw -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --=-=-=--