Re: Some questions regarding GuixSD

[dian_cecht]

On Fri, Sep 30, 2016 at 10:18:40AM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> > 2) Are multiple versions of a package in the tree at any given time?
> 
> You can have multiple profiles, each containing a different version of a
> given package, for example.
> 
> The source tree of Guix itself usually only contains the latest version
> of each package.  There are exceptions for packages where it makes sense
> to keep several stable series in parallel: GCC, Python, Guile, etc.

I don't know where Guix/GuixSD is in regards to the plans for it, and I havn't
had a chance to glance at the ROADMAP you mentioned later in this email, but I
can say from personal experience that maintaining one and only one version of a
package in a tree is a Really Bad Idea. When I used Arch they had (and may still
have, I have no clue what has happened with that distro since) a policy to only
maintain one version of any package at any given time in the distro. This is a
huge PITA and sometimes can make a system unusable if a package breaks. I
distinctly recall having one package I relied on breaking when I used Arch and
having to wait a few days for them to release a new version.

> 
> > 3) Is there any way to install GuixSD from something other than the LiveUSB
> > image on the site?
> 
> You can install Guix on top of your GNU/Linux system and run:
> 
>   guix system init config.scm /
> 
> Be careful: this is a one-way change!

So as long as Guix is installed correctly in the host system, the aforementioned
command is effectivly the install phase, while the rest is simply setting up the
enviroment for the new system? I can certain get behind that.

Thanks for the information; expect more questions from me.