bug#46803: User manual does not explain Profiles (nor GUIX_PROFILE)

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi,

Tobias Geerinckx-Rice via Bug reports for GNU Guix <bug-guix@gnu.org>
skribis:

> I think that would be very helpful.  I'm trying to think of a concise,
> correct, but actually useful definition of profiles for someone not
> already familiar with them or Guix.
>
> Out of curiosity: how do you intuitively understand profiles, as
> someone who's used Guix for a while?

I’m not Luis but I usually say that a profile is the location of a set
of installed packages.

> Luis Felipe via Bug reports for GNU Guix 写道：
>> [...] what is the GUIX_PROFILE variable, does it accept a single
>> path to a profile or more, and some use cases and examples. [...]
>
> I don't think we should document GUIX_PROFILE.  It's not part of the
> definition of Guix profiles.  It should not matter to users nor should
> they rely on previously observed behaviour.  AIUI there are no
> supported ‘use cases’, beyond copy-pasting Guix error messages...

Agreed.  ‘GUIX_PROFILE’ has no significance as an environment variable;
it’s referred to by the generated ‘etc/profile’, but it’s usually a
shell variable, not an environment variable.

Ludo’.