GuixSD installation: binary vs source packages

[Alex Vestgaard]

Hi,

I'm trying to migrate all my machines to GuixSD, which I believe will make some complicated data processing pipelines much easier to deploy and reproduce.

I have one question regarding the installation process, which other people on #guix could not answer. How can I determine what packages will be installed from source and compiled vs just binaries fetched from Hydra?

I tried the --dry-run for guix package -i and guix build, but I didn't find this very informative.

Lengthy compilation took me by surprise twice:

i) When I first started installing GuixSD, Guix got compiled. I expected a binary would be fetched instead.

ii) When installing icecat. I thought in principle there were binary substitutes for all packages in Hydra.

I would appreciate if anyone could clarify these.

Thanks.