Re: Why guix compiles libreoffice again?

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi znavko,

> 1st January I've performed updates for my non-root user 'guix pull && guix 
> package -u`
> Compilation of libreoffice-6.1.3.2 was so long. Guix compiles it again:
>
> $ guix pull
> $ guix package -u
> ...
> building 
> /gnu/store/vsn9c4h05ljy3zrnd6v9252iaa94njbj-libreoffice-6.1.3.2.drv...
>
> Despite I already have 6.1.3.2 version:
>
> $ libreoffice --version
> LibreOffice 6.1.3.2 10(Build:2)
> Why so?

>From the perspective of Guix the version number is not the most
interesting attribute.  What matters is all of the inputs that
contribute to libreoffice, e.g. all libraries and all of their inputs as
well.  When any one of the inputs changes, you’ll get a different
variant of libreoffice, which will need to be built.

This may seem wasteful (and in a few cases it really *is*), but in many
cases it is impossible to know in advance how a change of a dependency
would affect the package of interest.

--
Ricardo