Re: Guix pull: avoiding "Computing Guix derivation"

[Simon Tournier]

Hi Richard,

On lun., 13 mai 2024 at 20:52, Richard Sent <richard@freakingpenguin.com> wrote:

> You're correct. This solution wouldn't be sufficient to avoid "Computing
> Guix Derivation" for every possible A or B. To my understanding it could
> reduce the frequency this occurs.

[...]

> Assuming D changes significantly less frequently than A, B, C..., I
> would think this should be something we could feasibly substitute (at
> least for recent D and Z).

Well, the package ’guix’ has changed 14 times over the past year.
Therefore, this D cannot be this package ’guix’, IMHO.

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ git log --format="%cd %s" --since="1 year ago" | grep 'gnu: guix: Update' 
Mon May 13 18:22:53 2024 +0200 gnu: guix: Update to 7ca9809.
Tue Mar 12 14:27:01 2024 +0100 gnu: guix: Update to 4c94b9e.
Mon Mar 11 23:14:37 2024 +0100 gnu: guix: Update to 8f4ffb3.
Sat Dec 2 15:37:44 2023 +0100 gnu: guix: Update to 1.4.0-16.aeb494322c.
Thu Nov 30 07:15:36 2023 +0100 gnu: guix: Update to 1.4.0-15.e0885fcfbb.
Thu Nov 9 10:42:55 2023 +0200 gnu: guix: Update to a60ff46.
Fri Oct 6 12:26:44 2023 +0200 gnu: guix: Update to e863274.
Thu Sep 28 11:44:08 2023 +0200 gnu: guix: Update to d0438fc.
Mon Sep 18 12:31:52 2023 +0200 Revert "gnu: guix: Update to 
1.4.0-11.658de25e99."
Mon Sep 18 06:49:46 2023 +0200 gnu: guix: Update to 1.4.0-11.658de25e99.
Tue Aug 22 21:30:49 2023 +0200 gnu: guix: Update to 1.4.0-10.4dfdd82210.
Tue Aug 22 11:17:52 2023 +0200 gnu: guix: Update to 30355c1.
Mon Oct 2 09:28:02 2023 +0200 gnu: guix: Update to 1.4.0-12.b9fae146d6.
Mon Aug 21 18:44:49 2023 +0200 gnu: guix: Update to 0e6215a.
Fri Jun 9 22:11:14 2023 +0200 gnu: guix: Update to 44bbfc2.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Maybe I have a bad practise but here my “guix pull” history:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ guix pull -l | grep Generation
Generation 1    nov. 17 2023 13:18:58
Generation 2    déc. 11 2023 10:55:51
Generation 3    févr. 02 2024 01:56:52
Generation 4    mars 25 2024 18:22:25
Generation 5    mai 13 2024 19:28:31    (current)
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Therefore, I am not convinced that replacing "Computing Guix derivation"
(build-aux/build-self.scm) by the package ’guix’ would be robust enough.

(Assuming another package ’guix’, lighter e.g., without requiring the
test suite, etc.)

All that said, any experiment – even if it appears at first clunky – is
very welcome!  This part will be improved only if there is a collective
effort / discussion / try, IMHO, i.e., by challenging the status quo. :-)

Cheers,
simon