Re: guix pack -f docker and name ?

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi Simon,

zimoun <address@hidden> skribis:

> 1.
> The name of the tar is given at the end of the command `guix pack`. If
> you forget to track it, then you need to re-run `guix pack` (obviously
> with the very same parameters) to get it again.
> It is not super user-friendly. :-)
>
> What to think to add an option to name a symbolic link to this file in
> the store ?
>
> Currently, I am doing that by hand:
>   guix pack -f docker ...
>   # copy the name /gnu/store/<hash>-docker-pack.tar
>   ln -s paste my-name
>
> In general, I choose my-name as <foo-bar>-<hash> with <foo-bar>
> something to quickly remember what it is and the <hash> to be sure of
> what it is.

I think ‘guix pack’ should have a ‘-r/--root’ option like ‘guix build’
so you can do:

  guix pack -r my-image -f docker foo bar baz

WDYT?

> 2.
> Once loaded with `docker load < /gnu/store/<hash>-docker-pack.tar`
> then `docker image ls` list all the images. The REPOSITORY and TAG are
> not super helpful. :-)
> It is always: profile and <hash>.
>
> Maybe REPOSITORY should be guix and TAG should be <short-hash>-<name>.
> Because when one has more than 2 images, after holidays it is not
> possible to remember or they needs to track in a separate file what it
> is.

I agree, we can do better here.  :-)

We could allow for user-provided names, and/or, when ‘--save-provenance’
is used, we could show the commit ID or something.

Ideas?

You’ve already proposed other improvements to ‘guix pack -f’, and I
think you should email a concise reminder to each specific improvement
to bug-guix so we keep track of them.  I may be able to work on them
soonish.

Thank you!

Ludo’.