Re: A 'guix pull' option for 'manifest.scm' to be used in the next update

[Josh Holland]

Hi Hubert,

address@hidden writes:
> In order for 'manifest.scm' to be used in the next update, should I do 
> something like this:
>
>         $ guix pull -p, --profile=PROFILE
>
>               (using PROFILE instead of ~/.config/guix/current)

`guix pull` is not the command that you should be passing your manifest
file to.  If you are familiar with Debian-based distros, then `guix
pull` is (somewhat) analogous to `apt update`: it gets updated package
definitions (and also updates the guix program itself) but doesn't make
any changes to packages you have installed.

Also, I think you have misunderstood what the PROFILE option is
referring to.  A "profile" in Guix is a collection of packages.  Usually
you'll have a single profile for each user, and perhaps some ad-hoc
profiles created behind the scenes by running `guix environment`.  In
several months of running Guix, I've never needed to use the --profile
option.

To actually use the manifest, you want to pass it to `guix package`.
For example, here's the command I normally run to upgrade everything:

$ guix pull && guix package -m ~/guix-packages.scm -u .

Thanks,
Josh