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Re: Document /homeless-shelter?
From: |
Leo Famulari |
Subject: |
Re: Document /homeless-shelter? |
Date: |
Sun, 16 Jan 2022 13:25:57 -0500 |
On Sun, Jan 16, 2022 at 12:38:52PM -0500, Matt wrote:
> Subject: [PATCH] Document /homeless-shelter
I pushed a simpler addition to the manual:
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/doc/guix.texi#n1181
Of course I made a silly typo and so this change takes place over two
commits.
> +The @env{HOME} environment variable is set to @file{/homeless-shelter}
> +during the build process. This ensures builds are determistic and
> +highlights all uses of @env{HOME}. Packages should not depend on the
> +pathname of a home directory. Instead, modify the build phase to set
> +@env{HOME} to @file{/tmp}:
> +
> +@lisp
> +(modify-phases %standard-phases
> + (add-before 'check 'fix-home-directory
> + (lambda _
> + (setenv "HOME" "/tmp"))))
> +@end lisp
This text is basically correct but we have to balance verbosity with
readability.
The important thing was to document /homeless-shelter, so that packagers
understand it comes from Guix, and to explain its rationale.
It's not 100% true that setting HOME=homeless-shelter ensures that
builds are deterministic and highlights all uses of $HOME, although it
does help with those goals.
I don't think we want to document the use of /tmp, or recommend it as an
authoritative workaround.
Rather, it's a common solution, but packagers must seek to understand
how the package build scripts are trying to use $HOME and make a
judgement.
Additionally, I don't think that Build Environment Setup is the right
place to document workarounds.