Thanks very much Kaelyn. This clarifies things a lot 👏
Tim On Wed, 24 May 2023 at 18:17, Kaelyn <kaelyn.al...@protonmail.com> wrote: > > ------- Original Message ------- > On Wednesday, May 24th, 2023 at 8:25 PM, Timothy Washington < > twash...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > . This is expected. When you ran the "guix package -L ~/dotfiles/ -m > ~/dotfiles/guix/packages/manifest.scm" command above, that not only built > the manifest but also > > used the manifest to create a new generation of > /home/twashing/.guix-profile. > > > > Ah I see. > > > > . If you run "guix package --list-generations" you should see a list of > all of the existing (numbered) generations with the currently active > generation marked > > (it's typically the last / latest generation, and should be in this > case). > > . Running "guix package -I" will list the packages in the current > generation of your default guix profile, > > which should contain the packages in your manifest. > > > > . To go into more details about how profiles work: unless you specify > the "-p" argument to "guix package", > > it will operate on your default profile when installing or removing > packages (including through using manifests with "-m"), > > and create a new generation when the set of installed packages changes. > > > > . /home/twashing/.guix-profile is a symlink to > /var/guix/profiles/per-user/twashing/guix-profile, > > which in turn is a symlink to one of the numbered symlinks in that same > /var/guix directory (i.e. if your current generation number is 14, then > /var/guix/profiles/per-user/twashing/guix-profile will point to > /var/guix/profiles/per-user/twashing/guix-profile-14-link). > > > > . Each of those numbered symlinks points to the actual profile in > /gnu/store, > > so using that hypothetical generation 14 as the one created by your > "guix package -m" command above, > > /var/guix/profiles/per-user/twashing/guix-profile-14-link would be a > symlink to /gnu/store/sqaz4ff2nshfizfh8ymbzllia6lsgnfv-profile. > > > > This is really useful for my understanding. Thank-you! > > > > But when I restart my machine, the currently installed tools (from "guix > package -i foo") are not available on login. > > For example, I manually ran "guix package -i tree git". And after > restarting my machine, those were no longer available, even though > presumably they should have been part of my latest generation. > > I do remember trying to load the tools like below. But git and tree were > still not available. > > ". /home/twashing/.guix-profile/etc/profile" > > > > Are tools in generations cumulative? > > They are when installed or removed via "guix package -i" and "guix package > -r". Updating your profile using a manifest is not cumulative--the new > generation of your profile will have exactly the set of packages in the > manifest. You can then use "guix package -i" and "guix package -r" to > modify the installed set, but the set will be reset if/when "guix package > -m my-manifest.scm" is run. > > > And how can I load the cumulative sum of all my generations, and any > custom profiles I create? > > The most reproducible way to maintain the set of packages in your default > profile is to include them in your manifest (e.g. adding git and tree to > the list of packages included in the manifest, then running "guix package > -m your-manifest.scm" again). The generations of a profile are like git > commits or filesystem snapshots in that they represent the profile at > different points in time, and they aren't really meant to be composed > together. If you'd like to maintain separate profiles for different sets of > packages or groups of functionality instead of installing all the things > you need in your default profile, I might recommend taking a look at the > Guix Cookbook, in particular > https://guix.gnu.org/cookbook/en/html_node/Guix-Profiles-in-Practice.html. > > On a different tack, if you have no issue with installing all of the > packages you need in a single profile using a manifest, and you'd like a > way of managing at least some of your home configuration (shell aliases, > simple config files, etc), there is also "guix home" for a declarative way > of specify those pieces: > https://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/devel/en/html_node/Home-Configuration.html. > In a manner of speaking, it is to your home directory what "guix system" is > to the OS when booting Guix. > > Cheers, > Kaelyn >
