Re: Propose to distribute a user-only install script, not admin required

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi Josh,

Josh Marshall <address@hidden> skribis:

> One thing which I think could significantly aid adoption would be up
> either add an option or add a new installer script with guix
> configured to install and run purely out of the user's home directory
> without any special permissions.  Conceptually, guix shouldn't need to
> have any elevated permissions given it is acceptable to use resources
> less efficiently when they are in contention.  This would also allow
> guix to be a drop in replacement to tools which already allow
> individual users to install and use them without a hassle, like
> Anaconda.

I think we should consider providing a binary tarball produced with
‘guix pack -RR’ instead of just ‘guix pack’.  It’s possible to run
“rootless” Guix from there:

  https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2018-05/msg00139.html

With minor changes to the daemon, we could arrange so that users don’t
have to fiddle with environment variables or anything.

Now, I fear that the typical use case for that is places where user
namespaces aren’t available, which means a degraded experience.  (See
the rant at the bottom of
<https://hpc.guix.info/blog/2020/05/faster-relocatable-packs-with-fakechroot/>.)

Thoughts?

Ludo’.