Best practices for Guix environment variables on foreign distro

[Jorge]

Hi.  I use Guix on Ubuntu 16.04.4[1] to get up-to-date packages while
running Ubuntu LTS.  When setting up Guix environment variables I feared
disrupting the foreign distro.  If a program P on the foreign distro
invokes binary B, it expects the B version shipped with the foreign
distro.  If the Guix version of B is on the search path I fear trouble.
Therefore, instead of configuring all Guix environment variables on
`~/.profile', I only configured there `GUIX_PROFILE', `INFOPATH',
`MANPATH' and `GUIX_LOCPATH'.  I put the configuration of `SSL_CERT_DIR'
and `SSL_CERT_FILE' and the statement to source
`"${GUIX_PROFILE}/etc/profile' (which configures `PATH') on `~/.bashrc'
so they do affect interactive Bash shells but not programs spawned by
GNOME or by systemd.

However, I found an e-mail message on this list[2] and the footnote on
[info:guix#Invoking guix environment], both of which recommend against
sourcing `"${GUIX_PROFILE}/etc/profile' from `~/.bashrc'.

If my attempt is recommended against then how else should I enable Guix
on Emacs and interactive Bash shells while preventing it from disrupting
the foreign distro (e.g. programs spawned by GNOME)?  Or is this feared
disruption a non-issue in practice and I’m creating unnecessary
complication?

A related question: how do I make all info manuals from Guix accessible
to Emacs?  Not every Guix package is installed on my profile.  For now,
I configured INFOPATH to include both my user profile and root’s:

┌────
│ 
INFOPATH="/var/guix/profiles/per-user/root/guix-profile/share/info/:${INFOPATH-}"
│ export INFOPATH="${GUIX_PROFILE}/share/info/:${INFOPATH-}"
└────



Footnotes
─────────

[1] It came preinstalled with my Dell notebook.  I intend to later
migrate to a distro more respectful of free (libre) software ethics.

[2]
[https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-guix/2017-05/msg00082.html]

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