How long does it usually take to pull --no-substitutes?

[Zelphir Kaltstahl]

Hello Guix users!

Recently I had an issue when I did a `guix pull`, so I tried `guix pull 
--no-substitutes`. My understanding is, that substitutes are platform specific 
pre-built binaries, which one can download from the guix servers, instead of 
building them oneself. (Please correct me, if this is wrong.) So I thought, that 
most time would be spent compiling things and hopefully compiling many things in 
parallel as much as possible, to speed up the whole process. However, guix 
seemed stuck at some "build phase". I waited for like 2h or so, but it was still 
at that build phase. Is this normal? How long does it usually take to run with 
no substitutes? I guess it also depends on what one has in ones profile, so here 
is my output of `guix pacakge -i`:

~~~~
guile-colorized         0.1                     out     
/gnu/store/1v7mz43jc2dnw7xsxw7rj6k8nyr4f78m-guile-colorized-0.1
guile-fslib             0.2.0                   out     
/gnu/store/594xq5y9jfbllsjw81n73q3bqk8xn6zw-guile-fslib-0.2.0
guile-lib               0.2.7                   out     
/gnu/store/bc3zzjych6jyp4ph2af9k3w8qcs3nsn2-guile-lib-0.2.7
font-wqy-zenhei         0.9.45                  out     
/gnu/store/2wjdb6dwych39fil9h68zggy7pwbd5av-font-wqy-zenhei-0.9.45
font-wqy-microhei       0.2.0-beta              out     
/gnu/store/j42pppx2yzyxmw1k8qjs6b3yaqkfkg5g-font-wqy-microhei-0.2.0-beta
sicp                    20180718-3.bda03f7      out     
/gnu/store/sbzr80wq0fgr7ngc7yha9vkdwn75kg1a-sicp-20180718-3.bda03f7
openblas                0.3.20                  out     
/gnu/store/z9aavic2jyvp6jyfxnl9ka3i8vfk5phc-openblas-0.3.20
lapack                  3.9.0                   out     
/gnu/store/ia3dpy6c6yrbwcyyvxfv7wxldiif1abg-lapack-3.9.0
blis                    0.8.1                   out     
/gnu/store/gwqscaz61ygv5dsgda74jq46v0g0lxy9-blis-0.8.1
guile-readline          3.0.9                   out     
/gnu/store/5vkd41ldhz7c5gjcrmb33wx106j63jmp-guile-readline-3.0.9
guile-hall              0.4.1                   out     
/gnu/store/75qakrjfc4qvfhy9f2skivh7ry5w6923-guile-hall-0.4.1
gprolog                 1.5.0                   out     
/gnu/store/3cd5y1ag1mg4x6dyy2xj9m305ssbx8gx-gprolog-1.5.0
gforth                  0.7.3                   out     
/gnu/store/nxshv6ba19ng2lssw5qdp1i68msagyy6-gforth-0.7.3
guile-json              4.7.3                   out     
/gnu/store/p5f006jcr83jc7m731vhvjdkr2j0hnp3-guile-json-4.7.3
glibc-locales           2.35                    out     
/gnu/store/03v1svhv6wj9pd6awpdi5zn4wd31b23f-glibc-locales-2.35
ruby                    3.2.1                   out     
/gnu/store/6cndaz34x298damyyj4ryc56f4q7arhc-ruby-3.2.1
chicken                 5.2.0                   out     
/gnu/store/3wykwpp5wd7myky08scrzqkhiy1dzy8v-chicken-5.2.0
sbcl                    2.3.2                   out     
/gnu/store/67mi5yxfm0d2id4bc4cl7pljkv94qx2z-sbcl-2.3.2
guile                   3.0.9                   out     
/gnu/store/4gvgcfdiz67wv04ihqfa8pqwzsb0qpv5-guile-3.0.9
swi-prolog              8.5.20                  out     
/gnu/store/b7g7a9v42w41wwzlaram30dx764f7917-swi-prolog-8.5.20
erlang                  25.3                    out     
/gnu/store/c1k92g8ga1q71cfb3fmj1kzgpfpbqxyn-erlang-25.3
emacs                   28.2                    out     
/gnu/store/mq4xas3yrh24153z6hplaiv2b4frk561-emacs-28.2
obs                     29.0.2                  out     
/gnu/store/fw77k67y5p8iamj5mbii9zbxwa7w9lxz-obs-29.0.2
yt-dlp                  2023.03.04              out     
/gnu/store/1dpkjibz0130n6fpkgn4mzl74d889dzv-yt-dlp-2023.03.04
schismtracker           20221201                out     
/gnu/store/z5djfzrnbjccd8lh0z5bf9xazls2hm1v-schismtracker-20221201
okular                  22.08.1                 out     
/gnu/store/d8pihmxccd5bid2pi87wsvvkkkdsj54c-okular-22.08.1
racket                  8.8                     out     
/gnu/store/svrzd7cvjlcanwa46msdvdh1l28m6x5m-racket-8.8
~~~~

`guix describe --format=channels`:

~~~~
(list (channel
        (name 'guix)
        (url"https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git";)
        (branch "master")
        (commit
          "deda3cc9057f20b1e3d34d63a64da0bdd6ca1998")
        (introduction
          (make-channel-introduction
            "9edb3f66fd807b096b48283debdcddccfea34bad"
            (openpgp-fingerprint
              "BBB0 2DDF 2CEA F6A8 0D1D  E643 A2A0 6DF2 A33A 54FA")))))
~~~~

Ultimately I canceled the build phase thing and removed a package that caused a 
problem to get `guix pull` to work. Would be great to have some estimate though, 
whether building without substitute should take around an hour and was simply 
stuck somewhere, or takes a day, or maybe even more than a day, so that I could 
leave my machine running over night to let it finish. Is it even realistic to 
run a pull with --no-substitutes with a 16 core machine, or is that a workload, 
which is more oriented towards some powerful server hardware?

Sorry to be this vague about which build phase it was stuck at. I did not copy 
the output yesterday and did not screenshot it. I could try again, if needed.

Best regards,
Zelphir

--
repositories:https://notabug.org/ZelphirKaltstahl