Re: Installing system with packages, sysconfig.scm syntax

[Ludovic Courtès]

"白い熊 @相撲道" <address@hidden> skribis:

> I'm trying to understand the sysconfig.scm syntax to specify when clean 
> installing the system or running “guix system reconfigure”. 
>
> In the manual I've seen the example with Emacs. But I don't understand why 
> there's: 
>
> (use-modules (gnu)
>              (gnu packages emacs)
>
> and then in the operating-system section
>
> (packages (cons emacs %base-packages))
>
> Let's just say I want to reconfigure the system with packages emacs, mc, 
> xmodmap, and xterm installed for user joe. What do I put in the 
> sysconfig.scm? I've tried many combinations, but can't accomplish this simple 
> task. 

The ‘packages’ field describes packages that will be in the global
profile–i.e., /run/current-system/profile.  These are visible from every
user account.

There’s currently no way to describe how to populate a specific user’s
profile.  It would be hard to integrate with the ‘guix package -i’
approach anyway.

> Also, when installing from the USB, after booting the USB, can I “guix pull” 
> and then install the system? Or do I have to first install, then boot it, 
> then “guix pull”, meaning I couldn't maybe put all package definitions in the 
> install sysconfig.scm, as the packages might not be available before “guix 
> pull”? 

Both should work.  On the USB image, make sure to start the ‘cow-store’
service to avoid storing everything in RAM.

HTH,
Ludo’.