Re: guix gc, any way to delete only packages that aren't required to build anything?

[George Clemmer]

Mark H Weaver <address@hidden> writes:

...
> On my GuixSD system where substitutes are completely disabled and I
> build everything locally, I've been running my Guix daemon with both
> --gc-keep-derivations=yes and --gc-keep-outputs=yes for years.  Here's
> the relevant excerpt of my OS config:
>
>   (services (cons* <... my custom services here ...>
>                    (modify-services (remove (lambda (svc)
>                                               (eq? (service-kind svc)
>                                                    wicd-service-type))
>                                             %base-services)
>                      (guix-service-type
>                       config =>
>                       (guix-configuration
>                         (inherit config)
>                         (use-substitutes? #f)
>                         (authorized-keys '())
>                         (substitute-urls '())
>                         (extra-options '("--gc-keep-derivations=yes"
>                                          "--gc-keep-outputs=yes")))))))
>
> This configuration allows me to run "guix gc" without losing the
> dependencies that are needed to build the packages that are currently
> protected by GC roots, e.g. the packages in my profiles and system
> generations.  It's not perfect: I lose a few packages apparently related
> to grafts, but it's not too much in practice, and I can manually add
> more GC roots to handle those cases.
>
> Contrary to what Pierre wrote above, I've found that the use of these
> flags certainly does _not_ lead to an ever-growing store.  On my GNOME 3
> GuixSD system, my store requires ~30 gigabytes, and as long as I trim my
> older profiles and system generations regularly, the space requirements
> are fairly stable over time.
>
>       Regards,
>         Mark

Hi Mark,

I switched to this approach. It works great and I see similar
results. Thanks again for posting it.

- George