GNU Guix provides state-of-the-art package management features such as transactional
upgrades and roll-backs, reproducible build environments, unprivileged package
management, and per-user profiles. It uses low-level mechanisms from the Nix package
manager, but packages are defined as native Guile modules, using extensions to the
Scheme language - which makes it nicely hackable.
Guix may be run in single or multi-user mode (which requires the guix-daemon). To
have the guix daemon start and stop with your host, add to /etc/rc.d/rc.local:
if [ -x /etc/rc.d/rc.guix ]; then
/etc/rc.d/rc.guix start
fi
and to /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown (creating it if needed):
if [ -x /etc/rc.d/rc.guix ]; then
/etc/rc.d/rc.guix stop
fi
The daemon requires users for building the guix packages, which should be added
under the 'guixbuild' group.
groupadd -g 316 guixbuild
for i in `seq -w 1 10`; do
useradd -G guixbuild \
-d /var/empty -s `which nologin` \
-c "Guix build user $i" -u 316 -g 316 \
guixbuilder$i;
done
Restricting access to the daemon to only users in the guixbuild group is acheived
by setting file permissions for the daemon's socket's folder.
chgrp guixbuild /var/guix/daemon-socket
chmod ug=rwx,o= /var/guix/daemon-socket
Correct permissions must also be set for /var/guix/profiles to give users access.
By default guix will compile in /tmp, this can be changed by exporting $TMPDIR.
Guix will also by default store its packages in /gnu/store, to save space in the
root partition /gnu can be mounted on another partition.
Guix can either be built with the nix-daemon instead of the default guix-daemon or along
side nix sharing the same store, both require nix as an optional dependency. To build with
the nix-daemon use NIX="yes" and to share the store with nix use SHARE="yes".
guile-json is an optional dependency and will allow you to use the 'guix import pypi' command.
It is of interest primarily for developers and not for casual users.
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