Re: Releasing guix binary in Docker format too?

[zimoun]

Hi,

(Sorry Dany I have overlooked this email.)


> > While I was researching gitlab, I came across a feature where they have 
> > their
> > own Docker container registry on there.  Apparently, the Docker CLI can 
> > fetch
> > from whatever server the user wants!
> >
> > $ docker run [options] registry.gitlab.com/group/project/image [arguments]
> >
> > That got me thinking, we could easily also release Guix on something like
> > that.  Is our HTTP webserver enough to have a Docker registry, without
> > installing extra stuff?

Docker images can be quickly really big.  Can Berlin support such traffic?


> > $ docker run localhost/foo
> > Unable to find image 'localhost/foo:latest' locally
> > docker: Error response from daemon: Get "http://localhost/v2/": dial tcp 
> > 127.0.0.1:80: connect: connection refused.
> >
> > Aha!
> >
> > Do we want to do it?
>
> I say YES :). If we have a way to create these containers we can
> distribute them through http IPFS. We'll help write a nice discovery
> web interface which initially can be a simple web page. I don't think
> we need Docker containers for every package. But if there is a demand
> for a specific tool it can be very helpful to distribute software that
> way.

At FOSDEM19, in the session "world domination", we discussed a service
where the user provides a manifest.scm file or click to select various
packages (and optionally a channels.scm file) and then the service
returns the Docker image ready to be pulled (or docker run URL).
Well, this killer-feature "service" seems a far objective. :-)

Proposing a Docker image ready-to-use containing the package manager
could be nice and a first step in that direction, IMHO.

The same way <http://guix.gnu.org/en/download/latest/>, maybe adding a
Docker (or Singularity) image would be nice to have.


> In fact, one software I am writing depends on a host of programming
> languages including Python, Racket and Rust. A Guix Docker container
> is by far the simplest solution to distribute the software. And Guix
> containers are tiny - which is really nice.

Guix containers tiny?  It depends on what you pack. :-)
(For example, only Emacs is not tiny.)

All the best,
simon