bug#25775: Can't install packages after guix pull

[Pjotr Prins]

On Tue, Feb 21, 2017 at 09:44:03AM +1100, Ben Sturmfels wrote:
> On Sat, 18 Feb 2017 16:30:34 +0000
> Pjotr Prins <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > Yes, using the latest guix-daemon and guix client fixed it:
> > 
> > /gnu/store/175nlv448nk5kagwwl3zyy2w4726qfz6-guix-0.12.0-4.d9da/bin/guix-daemon
> 
> Could I trouble you to walk through the steps for manually installing a
> different version of guix-daemon? I'm stuck in the same situation where
> I can't `guix package --install`.

Since all the paths are hardcoded inside guix binaries you can move a
version of ./gnu/store/*-guix-0.12.* into the /gnu/store and run it
from there. The store does not care what you move there as long as the
path is unique (a feature of isolation) and it will actually clean up
when you garbage collect. You can even use the binaries inside the
binary tarball distribution of Guix by copying that one directory in.

Note that you should not overwrite files in /var/guix - where the
database resides as it will bring your whole system into a different
state.

I guess this is somewhat of a dirty fix, but it can fast track things
when you are stuck. Guix archive works in a similar fashion, but also
updates the database.

Pj.
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