Re: Guix home package confusion

[Tangonov]

With some more proper reading around I managed to find this thread 
from May:

https://www.mail-archive.com/help-guix@gnu.org/msg13655.html

The end of the conversation answered many of my questions. I think 
I know how I want to proceed from here.

Thanks for taking the time if you made it this far :)

Tangonov <tn@eml.cc> writes:

> Thanks for the reply. I of course felt the need to keep trying 
> after I
> messaged you. Call it determination (or impatience). I had 
> manged to
> do such a good job of addressing my own questions that I ended 
> up
> breaking my home environment.
>
> In the end, I ended up logging in as root, deleting my profile
> symlinks for my user and garbage collecting my user state.
>
> From there I was able to install my manifest from scratch using 
> guix
> home.
>
> I am still pretty confused about the relationship between guix
> package, guix home and how they interact with packages. It seems 
> like
> I can install many packages by invoking guix install, and then 
> one
> system home reconfigure would undo my links to those packages if 
> they
> aren't included in the home configuration. So it seems like I 
> should
> maintain my package manifest should my interests in which 
> packages to
> keep or discard should change above and beyond a base system.
>
> What's more confusing is after I installed from a clean slate, 
> my
> pinentry broke for gpg. It was fixed by invoking guix install
> pinentry, which required no download or build for pinentry. It 
> seems
> like the de-duplication worked in that case, but I now have 
> (again)
> two divergent records of which packages I should, or should not 
> have.
>
> It feels like I am swinging at a nail with my thumb in the path 
> of the
> hammer.
>
> What exactly is the intended use of guix home?
>
> I am happy to provide my configurations, though, they have 
> evolved
> since my initial message.
> Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il> writes:
>
> > [[PGP Signed Part:Undecided]]
> > On Tue, Jun 14, 2022 at 08:05:45AM -0700, Tangonov wrote:
> > > I am trying out guix for the first time and feel like I may 
> > > have
> > > jumped in
> > > head-first into the shallow end of the pool.
> > > I had started out with using guix package for my packages and
> > > updated my env
> > > for around 30 generations. Then I discovered guix home and 
> > > thought
> > > "hey,
> > > that may be better".
> > > I set up guix home following the documentation and it created 
> > > my
> > > first home
> > > generation and completely re-installed my packages.
> > > However, after subsequent changes to my home config, a guix 
> > > home
> > > reconfigure
> > > is now attempting to re-install (and build) my packages all 
> > > over
> > > again,
> > > despite never having run a guix pull.
> > > I tried to "undo" the initialization of guix home as I feel 
> > > like I
> > > maybe
> > > should stick to the "older way" for a while longer while I get 
> > > the
> > > hang of
> > > Guile Scheme and try not to change too much at once. I have 
> > > been
> > > unable to
> > > revert my initial revision, or find a clear path back without 
> > > doing
> > > something dramatic.
> > > With all of my history in mind, I have 3 questions:
> > > 1. Is there a supported way to apply incremental changes in 
> > > guix
> > > home,
> > > without re-doing (and re-compiling) all of my software?
> > > 2. Is there a supported way to revert back to just using GNU 
> > > Stow
> > > and guix
> > > package?
> > > 3. If I can be happy with guix home, is there any supported 
> > > way to
> > > remove
> > > potential bloat from having run guix package for 30 
> > > generations?
> > > Thanks for the incredible software and help, if you're able.
> >
> > I suppose the quick answer is to make sure you don't have 
> > 'guix' as
> > one
> > of the packages in your config.
> >
> > If you share your config we might be able to see if anything 
> > sticks
> > out.