Re: Downloads caused by guix package -u Vs guix system reconfigure

[Ian Eure]

Hi Laurence,

Laurence Rochfort <laurence.rochfort@gmail.com> writes:

> Hello all,
>
> Relatively new guix system user.
>
> On a new install of guix system, I did a "guix pull && guix 
> package -u".
>
> It said I was up-to-date.
>
> I then did a "guix system reconfigure", and that caused a 
> download of 640Mb
> of substitutes.
>
>
> Could somebody please help me understand why it prompted such 
> different
> behaviour?

Guix doesn’t have a single package state shared by the whole 
system, like most traditional Linux distributions, it has 
different states depending on context.  When `guix package -u' 
said you were up-to-date, that was in the context of your user 
profile; and when `sudo guix system reconfigure' downloaded 
packages, that was in the context of the operating-system itself.

This setup allows users to install packages without needing root 
privileges; for different users to have different packages; and 
for the versions of those packages to vary, rather than being 
shared among all users.

Hope this helps.

 -- Ian