guix system reconfigure /etc/config.scm or my-config.scm

[sirgazil]

Hi,

I'm reading the Guix manual, and I'm confused about the recommended way to 
reconfigure the system.

The workaround added recently to the "Graphical Installation" section suggests 
that in a freshly installed system you can:¹

    $ sudo emacs /etc/config.scm
    Modify the file to your liking
    $ guix pull && sudo guix system reconfigure /etc/config.scm

But the "System Configuration" section seems to recommend against touching 
files in "/etc". The "Instantiating the System" subsection talks about running ²

    $ guix system reconfigure my-system-config.scm

This subsection also reads:

    The normal way to change the system configuration is by updating this
    file and re-running ‘guix system reconfigure’.  One should never have to
    touch files in ‘/etc’ or to run commands that modify the system state
    such as ‘useradd’ or ‘grub-install’.  In fact, you must avoid that since
    that would not only void your warranty but also prevent you from rolling
    back to previous versions of your system, should you ever need to.

So, should one do the following instead?

    $ emacs ~/path/to/my-config.scm
    Modify the file to your liking
    $ guix pull && sudo guix system reconfigure ~/path/to/my-config.scm



Footnotes:

1. 
https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/en/html_node/Guided-Graphical-Installation.html#Guided-Graphical-Installation
2. 
https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/en/html_node/Using-the-Configuration-System.html#Instantiating-the-System


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