On 26/10/2017 23:46, Ricardo Wurmus wrote:
How about an extension of “guix pack” that will rewrite the /gnu/store
references to a user-provided directory before bundling things up in a
tarball? I’d *really* like to be able to just use the tarball bundle
“guix pack” produces by default, but currently deploying it requires
root access or proot shenanigans at runtime.
That would be nice indeed as a deployment option. In particular for
distributing binaries to less experienced users.
On 27/10/2017 02:48, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> The tarballs could include proot-static and another statically-linked
> program that essentially tries to call unshare(2). Would that make
> sense?
That's perhaps good enough as well. Suggestion: try to write the user
instructions for deploying these tarballs first, and pick the method
that is easiest to describe.
I see basically two usage scenarios. One is a form of software
installation: users download a tarball, follow the instruction
procedure, and than have some additional commands in their PATH. The
other scenario is the creation of a somewhat isolated environment, with
users wanting a shell for working in just that environment. For that
second scenario, proot is probably just fine, but I am less convinced
about the first one.
Konrad.
