Re: Review of pros and cons of package managers including Guix

[swedebugia]

Hi

On 2018-11-08 16:31, Adam Van Ymeren wrote:
> On November 8, 2018 4:43:23 AM EST, Thorsten Wilms <address@hidden> wrote:
> > On 08/11/2018 10.09, swedebugia wrote:
> > > https://www.slant.co/topics/344/~best-linux-package-managers
> > >
> > > Insights from the Guix-section:
> > >
> > > 4 pros: (missing the roll-back feature) see link.
> > >
> > > 1 cons:
> > >
> > > "Cannot handle filetypes that have different semantics across
> > different
> > > versions
> > > While the functional approach that Guix takes is great for sandboxing
> > > binary artifacts of packages, it seriously lacks any power in
> > handling
> > > configuration files or user data. It's difficult to upgrade and
> > > downgrade files where semantics and syntax can change between
> > versions."
> > > Do you agree with this critique?
> >
> > The best handling of configuration files I got to know is offered by
> > Debian, which, if a package comes with a new configuration file, asks
> > what to do about it. Better than nothing, but still not exactly a good
> > user experience. There quite simply isn't the right level of
> > granularity
> > and encoding of intentions given with plain text configuration files.
> Guix is in a position to do better than most in this area.  I love how most 
> services in Guix are configured via s-expressions which then generate the 
> appropriate plain text config from that.  Don't have to learn a new syntax for 
> every service.
>
> It also means that configurations are usable data in the Guix world, allowing 
> us to automatically upgrade configs to new syntax if a package decides to 
> change it.

I totally agree!

The Scheme s-expressions was a somewhat steep learning curve but now 
having passed it and beginning to understand the error messages from the 
Guile IT IS AWESOME.

1 powerful extension language to rule all the packages and configuration 
files :D

I keep track of my config.scm with git and it is simple to see the 
changes over time as I customize and tweak things.

I wish Guix had existed when I started with GNU/Linux 15 years ago. I 
began with Xandros and then moved on to Debian, Ubuntu and then Parabola.

--
Cheers
Swedebugia