Re: [Orchestration][RFC] A simple draft for channels

[Pjotr Prins]

On Mon, Mar 19, 2018 at 01:04:00PM +0100, Pjotr Prins wrote:
> Maybe we should start thinking that a channel is simply an
> architecture dependent Guix 'pack' of substitutes that includes the
> pre-built Guix git repo. When deployed in a container we can inject
> the keys. When this works we can design a pack repository, making the
> channels searchable.

Continuing my line of thought: a binary channel in my mind is now a
compiled Guix package tree with Guix and possible adaptations (say a
special package for Ruby). In other words, a special (timed) version
of Guix sitting in /gnu/store/*named-guix-channel/bin/guix. Installing
it I would simply create my own profile

    guix -i named-guix-channel -p ~/opt/named-guix-channel

and use that to install new software using the running guix-daemon. I.e.

    ~/opt/named-guix-channel/bin/guix package -A

or maybe better

    ~/opt/named-guix-channel/bin/named-guix-channel package -A

so it can actually live in a shared profile and pick up its own
substitute server. Anyone can create a channel and they can even live
on trunk as packages:

    guix package -i bio-ruby-guix-channel
    (admin add key)
    bio-ruby-guix-channel package -i bio-ruby

Simple but effective. Wouldn't that be cool?

To add a channel we may need some mechanism - possibly something like
loading a .scm on the command line which fetches the guix-channel
binary from a substitute server. The more flexible the better. So

    (admin add key)
    guix channel -i URI/my-channel.scm
    (which does a 'guix package -i my-bio-ruby-guix-channel')
    my-ruby-guix-channel package -i bio-ruby

a version would be

    (admin add key)
    guix channel -i URI/my-channel.scm GITHASH/GITTAG
    (which does a 'guix package -i my-bio-ruby-guix-channel')
    my-ruby-guix-channel package -i bio-ruby

We can start without the 'guix channel' bit. Early channel adopters
can work from a compiled source tree.

The only immediate adaptation to Guix required is that named-guix-channel
can pick up its own compiled package definitions and we have
fast binary-channels.

Right?

Pj.


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