Re: collection of “guix pull“ bug reports

[Kierin Bell]

Simon Tournier <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> writes:

Hi everyone,

> Hi Maxim,
>
> On Sat, 26 Aug 2023 at 22:34, Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com> 
> wrote:
>
>>> https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/62830
>>> https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/63451
>>> https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/63830
>>> https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/64489
>>> https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/64659
>>> https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/64753
>>> https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/64963
>
> [...]
>
>>> Any idea about what could be unexpected or what needs some love?
>>
>> I haven't checked the above links, but I think something that would help
>> in this regard is better handling of network issues.  E.g, don't print a
>> backtrace on the first connection failure; retry maybe 3 times then
>> print a helpful error mentioning the network appears unreliable.
>
> IMHO, this collection raises two questions:
>
>   1. Why does it happen?  To say it explicitly, I am almost sure that
>   something is not smoothly working as expected on server side.  For
>   instance, I had ‘guix pull’ troubles with a machine and I am doubtful
>   that this machine has network issue (this machine is using the fast
>   network link of my Univ. employer :-))
>
>   2. What could be done on client side for reducing the annoyance?  I
>   agree that substitute failures should be better handled.  For example,
>   retry 3 times then display an error message.  Etc.
>
>
> Cheers,
> simon
>
> PS: About #2, please give a look at these annoyances:
>
>   + Issue 1 and 2: Options --fallabck and --no-substitutes
>   + Issue 3: Non consistent message for substitutes and/or fallback
>
> from <https://simon.tournier.info/posts/2023-06-23-hackathon-repro.html>.
>
>
>

I've had most of these issues.  FWIW, some of them (like
https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/63451) only manifested when I had been
using old ethernet dongles or WiFi cards which severely limited
bandwidth.  Even with better hardware, the 'substitute died
unexpectedly' issues still happen sometimes.

I definitely vote for adding some redundancy here, too.

Thanks
-- 
Kierin Bell
GPG Key: FCF2 5F08 EA4F 2E3D C7C3  0D41 D14A 8CD3 2D97 0B36