Re: home-files-service-type file permissions

[phodina]

Hi Andrew,

On Wednesday, November 3rd, 2021 at 8:24 AM, Andrew Tropin <andrew@trop.in> 
wrote:

> On 2021-11-02 11:31, phodina@protonmail.com wrote:
>
> > Hi Andrew,
> >
> > Thanks for the development of Guix home. I've recently switch to it from my 
> > dotfiles.
> >
> > However, there is one thing that I do not know how to set.
> >
> > When using the service home-files-service-type I encountered a situation 
> > where I'm copying a script:
> >
> > (simple-service 'dotfiles
> >
> > home-files-service-type
> >
> > (list
> >
> > ...
> >
> > `("config/sway/wallpaper-change.sh" ,(local-file 
> > "config/sway/wallpaper-change.sh"))))
> >
> > However, after guix home reconfigure the file has only read flags set not 
> > execute. Even though the original file has execute flags.
> >
> > Is the home-files-service-type the correct service to use?
> >
> > Petr
>
> If there is no specific home service for your use case, which generates
>
> all necessary configs and executables for you the answer is probably
>
> yes, using home-files-service-type directly is a way to go.
>
> > Or do I have to patch it in order to keep the permissions?
>
> AFAIK, local-file, mixed-text-file create non-executable files in the
>
> store by design.

Thanks, I've now looked more at the implementation and spend time understanding 
the differences between local-file, plain-file, computed-file, program-file.
>
> If you want to make an executable file you have at least a few options:
>
> 0. You can use recursive? flag to keep permissions.
>
> (local-file "blabla" #:recursive? #t)
>

Nice and simple solution.

> The quote from documentation:
>
> > if file designates a flat file and recursive? is true, its contents
> >
> > are added, and its permission bits are kept.
>
> http://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/devel/en/guix.html#index-local_002dfile
>
> 1.  Use program-file
>
>     http://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/devel/en/guix.html#index-program_002dfile
>
>     For example I do it for generating screenshot scripts:
>
>     https://git.sr.ht/~abcdw/rde/tree/master/item/rde/features/wm.scm#L188

Thanks for this example! This is what I've been looking for.

> 2.  Use computed-file, which will call chmod with apropriate arguments
>
>     inside gexp. Take a look at "empty-tree" example in the manual, you can
>
>     create a file and set apropriate permissions in the same way.
>
>     --

This is also super useful as it allows to do what's needed to the file.

>
>     Best regards,
>
>     Andrew Tropin