bug#25952: offloading: empty machines file leads to error

[zimoun]

Hi,

For reference: <http://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/25952>.

On Mon, 14 Sep 2020 at 19:26, zimoun <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 26 May 2020 at 00:43, zimoun <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Mon, 25 May 2020 at 22:32, Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me@tobias.gr> wrote:
>>
>>> The issue is that files such as /etc/guix/machines.scm (but this
>>> applies equally to /etc/guix/acl & so on) are expected to evaluate
>>> to a sexp.
>>>
>>> An empty file does not a valid sexp make, so Guix throws an
>>> prickly backtrace @ your face & dies.  This is unlike most other
>>> configuration formats where an empty file or one consisting
>>> entirely of comments is a no-op.
>>
>> Hum? I am not sure to get the point.  Are we talking about this kind
>> of situations, e.g.,
>>
>> touch /tmp/empty.scm
>> guix package -m /tmp/empty.scm -p /tmp/empy
>>
>> or
>>
>> echo ";; hello" > /tmp/comment.scm
>> guix package -m /tmp/comment.scm -p /tmp/comment
>>
>> or
>>
>> echo "(define x 42)" > /tmp/answer.scm
>> guix package -m /tmp/answer.scm -p /tmp/answer
>>
>>
>> ?
>
> If we are talking about such cases, I think we can close this bug
> report.
>
>
>>> We should decide whether ‘’ is a valid sexp (oh dear, philosophy)
>>> or throw something softer at people.
>>
>> Throw something more "helping" than e.g.,
>>
>> Backtrace:
>>            1 (primitive-load "/home/simon/.config/guix/current/bin/g…")
>> In guix/ui.scm:
>>   1936:12  0 (run-guix-command _ . _)
>>
>> guix/ui.scm:1936:12: In procedure run-guix-command:
>> In procedure struct-vtable: Wrong type argument in position 1
>> (expecting struct): #<unspecified>
>>
>> ?
>
> More helping as suggested for example in this message:
>
> <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2020-09/msg00125.html>
>
> If yes, the bug report should be renamed.  And probably goes to the
> Guile bug tracker. :-)


What do we do?  What is the next action?  Close?  If not, please provide
explanations about what the issue really is and what could be the plan
to fix it. :-)

Cheers,
simon