gfp <g...@posteo.at> writes:
Hi,
1.
Approx. 2 years ago some Guixers proposed to create profiles in
order
to have not too many packages in the main profile, which makes
it
easier to update the profile. If during updating the profile one
package creates trouble, the whole updating process stops. I had
those
trouble several times.
What kinds of problems?
Guix is a transactional package manager, so one failure must halt
the operation it occurred within. This is one of the tradeoffs of
the Guix system, and it certainly can lead to some annoying
situations. If it’s a major problem for you, you might consider
another distro, or using Guix on a foreign distro, where you let
the other package management system handle some of the software.
2.
If I put all packages in the main profile, I would have
approx. 30
packages more and altogether approx. 120 packages at the moment,
and
there will be more in future.
That seems fine.
3.
May be those Guixers have special needs and it works easier for
them.
Of course, those Guixers know what they are doing unlike me.
One of the best things about Guix is how you can tailor it to your
tastes! I would definitely recommend experimenting a bit to find
something that works for you.
4.
If I had all packages in my main profile, would it be possible
to
update only some packages?
I believe `guix package -u package-name-or-regexp' will do what
you want, but can’t test it.
e.g. icecat and others quite regularly are updated, so it would
be
good to update them more often.
Note also that by not updating packages in profiles, you’re
increasing the number of vulnerabilites you’re subject to (and
making it harder to update to fix them). For example, if an
OpenSSL vuln is patched, and two of your profiles have packages
which need the library, they’ll remain vulnerable until you
upgrade within those profiles.
-- Ian
