Build failure with installed guix that does not happen with pre-inst-env

Dear Guix experts,

When updating my Guix installation after three weeks of absence, I

noticed a build failure:

$ guix pull –commit=de596e99549d7764f370ab2ed3b756f620b1f23d

$ guix build racket

guix package: error: racket-fix-xform-issue.patch: patch not found

However, that patch file is there:

$ ls -l .config/guix/latest/gnu/packages/patches/racket-fix-xform-issue.patch

-r--r--r-- 10 root root 2520 janv. 1 1970 .config/guix/latest/gnu/packages/patches/racket-fix-xform-issue.patch

Moreover, the same build works fine when I check out the same commit and

use pre-inst-env:

$ cd ~/Development/guix

$ guix environment guix

$ git pull

$ git checkout de596e99549d7764f370ab2ed3b756f620b1f23d

$ ./bootstrap

$ ./configure --localstatedir=/var

$ make

$ ./pre-inst-env guix build racket

I suspect that this is somehow caused by the new implementation of "guix

pull", but I don't know how I would go about debugging this, so I defer

to the experts.

Konrad.

Hi Konrad,

thanks for the precise error report.

On Mon, 30 Jul 2018 18:16:54 +0200

Konrad Hinsen <konrad.hinsen@fastmail.net> wrote:

Could it be the case that in your `guix build ...` you are not using

the guix you pulled?

What does `guix --version` say?

Where does `which guix` point to?

It should point to

~/.config/guix/current/bin/guix

I suspect you have an older version of Guix (i.e. "before the new

implementation") in your $PATH with a higher precedence (more to the

beginning of the $PATH variable). See what `echo $PATH` says. If that

is the case, adapt your path.

HTH,

Björn

Hi Björn,

Thanks for your quick reply!

It points to $HOME/.guix-profile/bin/guix, and since I have the package

"guix" installed in my profile, that looks OK to me. At the very least I

am used to it: guix has always been in my profile, and has always worked

well that way.

But I do see how this could cause various failures after a guix pull,

because the guix in my profile has to work with the updated stuff the

pull has placed under ~/.config. So perhaps the real mystery is that I

haven't had any trouble before. And I wonder what strategy to adopt to

avoid it - remove guix from my profile? There was a good reason to

install it last year, but I don't remember what it was. If installing

guix into a profile is not a good idea, perhaps the guix package should

disappear or be renamed to something that indicates its true purpose?

BTW, since I updated my profile with the pre-inst-env guix, I now also

have a new guix in my profile and the build failure has disappeared.

Konrad.

Le Tue, 31 Jul 2018 11:42:14 +0200,

Konrad Hinsen <konrad.hinsen@fastmail.net> a écrit :

You're experiencing the change to the (not so) new guix pull. Now a

complete guix is installed in ~/.config/guix/current. The guix

installed in your profile doesn't look for packages in that directory,

but uses its own definitions. This has a side-effect: whenever you try

to update your profile, not only does your guix not use the newer guix,

but the only guix package it knows of is a least 1 commit *before* your

current guix, hence downgrading guix (and package definitions) at every

update.

Make sure you uninstall guix from your profile and add

~/.config/guix/current/bin to your PATH. Then you should be able to use

the freshly pulled guix.

tags 32316 fixed

close 32316

Hi Julien,

I missed your reply because it arrived while I was on vacation, so I was

made aware of it only by the message about the bug being closed.

Thanks for your clear explanation, I will uninstall guix from my

profile!

Konrad.