Re: Plan for 0.9.0

["Thompson, David" <dthompson2@worcester.edu>]

On Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 8:51 AM, Mathieu Lirzin <mthl@openmailbox.org> wrote:
> "Thompson, David" <dthompson2@worcester.edu> writes:
>
>> On Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 8:28 AM, Mathieu Lirzin <mthl@openmailbox.org> wrote:
> [...]
>>> I think the enthusiasm for changing ‘guix gc’ was induced by somekind of
>>> shared experience of typing it loosely and ending up having to download
>>> a lot of substitutes again.  So maybe we can keep ‘guix gc’ as it is but
>>> make it interactive by listing what is going to be deleted and ask for
>>> confirmation with a [Y/n] prompt.  This solution will also require
>>> somekind of a ‘--force’ option for scripting purposes.
>>>
>>> Does it sound better?
>>
>> In general, I do not like interactive CLIs.  I'm fine with 'guix gc'
>> working as-is.  The re-downloading lots of substitutes issue is not an
>> issue about the CLI, but rather about not making store items that you
>> want to hang around GC roots.
>
> You mean a problem between the keyboard and the chair, or a problem with
> the GC being too greedy?

The GC is not too greedy.  It's doing exactly what it should.  The
issue is that we need more tools to let people protect things from the
GC that they want protected.  One example that is that 'guix
environment' will eventually generate profiles that are registered as
GC roots, which will protect development environments from the GC.

- Dave