Re: Contribute or create a channel?

[Attila Lendvai <attila@lendvai.name>]

> > the patch inflow to the guix repo is currently overwhelming the
> > available capacity for review and pushing.
> 
> 
> With an email like the one sent by Hartmut we can better arrange for
> shepherding this large submission. (Nothing is to be gained from
> repeatedly bemoaning well-known issues in the patch review processes
> here and in other threads on the mailing list.)


i was reflecting on why i wrote this, and what i wanted to express is that i think guix has reached a point where a monorepo is becoming a net negative, and i don't see this being discussed.

my gut feeling is that new abstractions are needed that would enable splitting the monorepo/community into less tightly coupled subgroups where they can have their own coding standards, repos, channels, etc, and a more federated way to maintain/integrate all the software that exists out there into a guix system.

in this hypothetical setup commit rights could be issued much more liberally to non-core sub-repos, and more rigorous code reviews would only need to be done when a new version of the split-out part is being incorporated back into a new revision of the core/bootstrap chain (if e.g. assuming python is needed for the bootstrap of the core, then the python subgroup's stuff would only need core review when a new version of that is pointed to by the core).

or alternatively, simply try to split guix into a minimal core that is essential for the bootstrap, and everything else into multiple subchannels (gnome, gui stuff in general, random apps, etc). i have no impression how much that alone could shrink the monorepo part, though.

channels are a step towards this, but they are not enough in their current form to successfully accommodate for such a setup. an obvious thing that is missing is a way to formally express inter-channel dependencies, including some form of versioning.

sadly, i don't have any proposals beyond discussing the observable issue (i.e. the insufficient patch throughput).

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• attila lendvai
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