Mark H Weaver (2018-12-20 07:12 -0500) wrote: > Hi Ludovic, > > Ludovic Courtès <l...@gnu.org> writes: > >> Actually, I was also wondering whether we should provide a configurable >> mechanism that would, by default, automatically delete old GC roots and >> maybe even run the GC automatically when needed—similar to what Git >> does. >> >> Thoughts? > > I think it's reasonable to automatically run GC by default, but I would > strongly advise against deleting GC roots automatically by default > without the user's knowledge and consent. > > It's certainly true that git performs GC automatically, but does it > automatically delete GC roots by default? I've never seen it do this, > and I would be surprised and angry if it did. > > I consider Guix GC roots to be potentially valuable user data, > regardless of age. For example, an old GC root might be valuable > because it was used to perform an experiment that should be repeatable, > or because it is known to work reliably for a given job, and newer > versions have not yet been tested. > > I, for one, expect my old profiles, system generations, and other GC > roots to be kept unless I explicitly delete them, and I suspect I'm not > alone. If I hadn't been paying close attention to Guix development, and > later discovered that Guix had deleted my GC roots without my consent, I > would be surprised and angry.
You are not alone! I completely agree with your points. -- Alex
