Hi Rutherther, Rutherther <[email protected]> writes:
> Hi, > > I have a proposal for a new way handling of %mirrors from (guix > download) and possibly other things. > Few months ago there was a misbehaving mirror in the %mirrors that > didn't send 404 for missing pages. It meant users got html pages instead > of source. > > This issue was fixed by removing the mirror from %mirrors, but it > fixes it only if you are using newer Guix that has it removed. Still if you go > back in time, you can face an issue as long as you don't use substitutes. > > Because of possibility of such issues I have a proposal, to still have > %mirrors in Guix code, but only as a default. And to try to load system > or user module where the users or system administrators can configure > new mirrors. > > Specifically I am imagining something like /etc/guix/config.scm and > ~/.config/guix/config.scm. This module could export %mirrors, but if it > didn't, the deafult would be used. > > Then on Guix System this could exist by default in the system and by > default have what is in the Guix source that built the system. This way > if users on Guix System go back in time through time machine and face > misbehaving mirrors (but of course only those with handling of this new > config), they are safe even with time-machine going back. > > Misbehaving mirrors is the initial motivation, but I think it doesn't > have to be the only reason for this change. Users could also choose > mirrors closer to them. > > If this change has been agreed upon, %disarchive-mirrors should probably > have the same handling, and I presume %swh-base-url (though that one is > at least parameterizable, but still, you cannot really change it if you > use the regular guix scripts) could also be useful. Or in general pretty > much every url that the user cannot really change without rebuilding > guix? For example with packages, you can still inherit them, use > transformations etc., but with overriding mirrors, you are out of luck. > While we might not see this as necessary at this current moment, we > cannot know what the future will bring and if we need to change the > urls, time-machine's behavior will become inferior when coming back in > time as the users will start facing issues that led to the change of the > given url in the first place. This sort of future-proofs Guix. > > What do you think? > Rutherther It sounds like a good idea! A patch implementing this would be welcome. -- Thanks, Maxim
