Re: Install older version of a package with the "@version" specifier

[Lo Peter]

Thanks a lot for the clarifications.

On Sat, Jun 27, 2020 at 2:04 AM zimoun <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear,
>
> On Fri, 26 Jun 2020 at 19:15, Julien Lepiller <julien@lepiller.eu> wrote:
>
> > - use r from an old revision of guix that had the version you're looking 
> > for. This can be done using an "inferior". The package will more likely 
> > build (and even have substitutes), but it uses the old version of all its 
> > dependencies, which are not necessarily patched for vulnerabilities and may 
> > require more space to be stored, as they are not shared with other packages.
>
> It is not easy to find the old revision (commit) which owns the
> version you are looking for.  In such cases, the Guix Data Service
> could help.  For example, this URL lists all the R versions in Guix
> over the time:
>
> https://data.guix.gnu.org/repository/1/branch/master/package/r
>
> As you can see, it is rare that 2 versions of R exist at the same time
> in Guix.  I let you click and you will find that the last commit
> containing the R version 3.6.3 is the commit 899093.
>
> https://data.guix.gnu.org/revision/89909327d017198969436237acc7c93823ff8147/package/r/3.6.3
>
> Then the way for creating an inferior is "guix time-machine".  It goes
> back but without polluting your current setup; you can have different
> versions from different time/commit.  The following command creates
> temporarily an old Guix version and use it for spawning an environment
> containing R.
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> $ guix time-machine --commit=899093      \
>      -- environment --ad-hoc r-minimal \
>      -- R
> R version 3.6.3 (2020-02-29) -- "Holding the Windsock"
> [...]
> > sessionInfo()
> R version 3.6.3 (2020-02-29)
> Platform: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu (64-bit)
> Running under: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
>
> Matrix products: default
> BLAS/LAPACK: 
> /gnu/store/vax1vsg3ivf0r7j7n2xkbi1z3r0504l9-openblas-0.3.7/lib/libopenblasp-r0.3.7.so
>
> locale:
> [1] C
>
> attached base packages:
> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
>
> loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
> [1] compiler_3.6.3
> >
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
> Instead of 'environment', you can use 'install -p
> /path/to/profile/with/old/R'.  However, it is important to be clear
> with which version of R you are using and which version is used to
> "compile" the R packages you will install, and use a manifest.scm file
> is really a good practise when traveling in time. :-)
>
>
> Hope that helps,
> simon