bug#34531: Guix profile fails on Overdrive 1000

[Andreas Enge]

Hello,

on a newly installed Overdrive 1000 machine with 8 GB of memory, I am trying
   guix pull -n

This results in
Updating channel 'guix' from Git repository at 
'https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git'...
Building from this channel:
  guix      https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git   d0d207c
The following derivations will be built:
   /gnu/store/qvljgqnsynw113h1062nws9i2zfcz15y-compute-guix-derivation.drv
   /gnu/store/rj824ibc8nhhl1j2h25sgw4lyxkxjggc-gdb-8.2.drv
...
   /gnu/store/w1jw283cdf6n03qnccsrvxgzy41z0hps-guile-gcrypt-0.1.0.drv
building /gnu/store/wy37294j2rb6fg5fgpybki28vq60jz94-python-minimal-3.6.5.drv...
starting phase `set-SOURCE-DATE-EPOCH'
...

That a build of something starts although the "-n" flag is specified seems
to be a first bug.

Then, during the test phase, the build is killed since the machine runs out
of memory. I also tried to pass "--cores=1" to "guix build", but this
parameter is not honoured: "top" shows that all four cores are running.
This might be a second bug.

In any case, it becomes impossible to upgrade with the usual mechanism,
which is a rather serious bug.

My guix version:
   $ guix --version
guix (GNU Guix) 0.15.0-8.71a78ba

There should be a number of possible solutions:
- Try to not depend on python for such basic operations (preferable; where
  does this dependency come from anyway?)
- Disable the tests in a bootstrapping python that is used here.
- Disable only tests requiring a lot of memory.
- Update python to a newer version.

What do you think we should try?

Andreas


PS: I am still not convinced that the system is in a coherent state, so it
would be interesting if someone could confirm this bug. For instance, I
observe the following:

$ guix package -i hello -n
guix package: warning: Your Guix installation is 9 days old.
guix package: warning: Consider running 'guix pull' followed by
'guix package -u' to get up-to-date packages and security updates.

The following package would be installed:
   hello        2.10    /gnu/store/5hzc1q803ksynz19sr8ymvgzf4v7anzk-hello-2.10

The following derivations would be built:
   /gnu/store/1krpkl0axqyn2lpxp3ick3s0p2z5qrnv-profile.drv
   /gnu/store/gfxnqasw81kxjjvfmv5i54rbvlpkd8n1-mkfontdir-1.0.7.tar.bz2.drv
   /gnu/store/n0fgxl55ni7pmw03p8aqaamqvj31ym0l-libfontenc-1.1.3.tar.bz2.drv
   /gnu/store/4c1jfinnpjrxnx7grpwmwh3s1b64b8bc-libfontenc-1.1.3.drv
   /gnu/store/x38kid3sf3zw15rlwl375kp0ng1iz8m3-mkfontscale-1.1.3.tar.bz2.drv
   /gnu/store/9fb2w29gyfq6hsw064l89vb29jd0jry4-mkfontscale-1.1.3.drv
   /gnu/store/iwi0648clfzpp084qic303glv9cp9qwy-module-import-compiled.drv
   /gnu/store/lz4psj250m4xh4mpvkd2qchbs9vb9f19-mkfontdir-1.0.7.drv
   /gnu/store/w11j7chynk58lzk40agd37ii32rc7d6c-fonts-dir.drv
   /gnu/store/rj824ibc8nhhl1j2h25sgw4lyxkxjggc-gdb-8.2.drv
   /gnu/store/7g3ybwsd664941qz7jp2c3rcxaxm2nij-valgrind-3.13.0.drv
   /gnu/store/swx5jipn1id1qfw60hh1f7icxfflfx6s-scons-python2-3.0.1.drv
   /gnu/store/q98m948gmibnccjjdbw4s80vkn5ywmza-boost-1.66.0.drv
   /gnu/store/i1a2f33p08brilpkdn35rm5jgng2bnrn-swig-3.0.12.drv
   /gnu/store/m8y9k0zqkq6sa0lv9714ql9f4m36pmrh-serf-1.3.9.drv
   /gnu/store/sazsmami6651dkgj51ij53x0bx9hl46x-lz4-1.8.1.2.drv
   /gnu/store/3g8plb0fvnblmb7ldr4ikmlpv44k0xzp-libxslt-1.1.32.drv
   /gnu/store/4nms2l8g8n770harl3f9qzizp0amyqvz-xcb-proto-1.13.drv
   /gnu/store/wy37294j2rb6fg5fgpybki28vq60jz94-python-minimal-3.6.5.drv
   /gnu/store/zyq4z95r0afywwn9y6283irikgx72885-python-minimal-wrapper-3.6.5.drv
   /gnu/store/68bycryid94b46kw9kp1mlmgc0s3y8k6-libxrender-0.9.10.drv
   /gnu/store/wgxbfymwcscqmsqn5cbv7sskd9racsr9-libxft-2.3.2.drv
   /gnu/store/7jl0aja7msxhnm39x7vbz0r7lxfrk0xh-python-3.6.5.drv
   /gnu/store/xmhsaqhlp6fmxny50vs3if8jlv0cclbi-python-wrapper-3.6.5.drv
   /gnu/store/jbdy9za2xfxqg65c27lwic1psnz2kikg-ghostscript-9.23.drv
   /gnu/store/g9i8l4dnp7a6pr1rz4ly2apyp7cxcmz7-openldap-2.4.46.drv
   /gnu/store/jvj8p7qc1y1f15yd34ahysdpkl2120kn-groff-1.22.3.drv
   /gnu/store/220nl6licli726kdrvzw8k3j6qak5cq5-libx11-1.6.5.drv
   /gnu/store/gnijgdfa363n5jc2qk9wn54x12787yvl-curl-7.59.0.drv
   /gnu/store/i3bvnpnjhj6y8d2kzksw6f6gpfbadwl0-libxext-1.3.3.drv
   /gnu/store/jf7dxdv6dsrkr75b68whz7nnyss485js-tk-8.6.8.drv
   /gnu/store/jga9yslz6zafqchv4mr5hg7106s0lhsx-libxcb-1.13.drv
   /gnu/store/lkwynhkq6a4a242i17qbxcx5khkng3wc-asciidoc-8.6.10.drv
   /gnu/store/slj73h4y23gdwm6znclijsxi3cggdd57-xmlto-0.0.28.drv
   /gnu/store/wn577xbf7fc70kcczmrcn03b0615mlpl-python2-2.7.14.drv
   /gnu/store/x2xbfpl32ni1lbq5r515qqh45qsyalri-subversion-1.10.2.drv
   /gnu/store/h9v84xaab30a6vqg7ni4g74fwslzz1f2-git-2.19.2.drv
   
/gnu/store/jrk6szd0b8glb69iqs8kwsr74d47ck78-guile-gdbm-ffi-20120209.fa1d5b6-checkout.drv
   
/gnu/store/6zgzgmmqa5ghqljwslmsh7xcmz3rckcy-guile-gdbm-ffi-20120209.tar.xz.drv
   /gnu/store/g0103wbwhzgv716xn7x2pyzhp0xmypbm-module-import.drv
   /gnu/store/nhy3343z8q23f20im1jm8cr0dvax8m3n-module-import-compiled.drv
   /gnu/store/81jxzs3h1ryr1jmnzlazqn2i1qswxpxn-module-import-compiled.drv
   
/gnu/store/8va28xxwi4qidaq5gha55sxwwr2hwsbi-guile-gdbm-ffi-20120209.fa1d5b6.drv
   /gnu/store/h64z34a0g2jy57fbfrmdrykfjqsm8ny4-module-import.drv
   /gnu/store/cmavl4ahvx5yi1klmn1dmjc004njyi5h-ca-certificate-bundle.drv
   /gnu/store/73vrp31a5fg5zgwyb4808dk7g5idq0n0-bash-static-4.4.19.drv
   /gnu/store/rybkx8wn2czlbyhqf2hrxa4qjmrm5hkn-glibc-2.27.tar.xz.drv
   /gnu/store/2ww5cyacdml0wqmpmpryyamvay1ryqfv-glibc-2.27.drv
   /gnu/store/9mf0p34cm53g3l8li2fikmy4ns1f4jfm-linux-libre-headers-4.14.26.drv
   /gnu/store/hwc4xr8jx4g4im96rsm5h3fbmr3b5gfv-gzip-1.9.drv
   /gnu/store/vjc17j34rl0cvnbj547gk1hn1kxx4jdh-module-import-compiled.drv
   /gnu/store/0mppv29wf1wf02hbrsi1i9y3rxj4wg99-info-dir.drv
   /gnu/store/7vs1h0b02fzzf02bnmk23lw2sibfhnjy-glibc-utf8-locales-2.27.drv
   /gnu/store/v1sz6x6z0nliqqzhvn5956gyq9qsw9k3-manual-database.drv
   /gnu/store/zci2ggar92r1zfbfx5rb9klpzjlr6qg0-module-import-compiled.drv

This is an awful lot of unrelated packages required to build hello!