Subject: bug#38529: Make --ad-hoc the default for guix environment proposed deprecation mechanism

From: zimoun <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2020 20:23:05 +0100

Hi,

Happy New Year!
(if you are using a gregorian calendar based on the January 1srt reform)

On Tue, 31 Dec 2019 at 20:09, Ricardo Wurmus <[email-masked]> wrote:

> “profile” is a tempting choice, but it’s treacherous because we might be
> blinded by the glow of the implementation of environments as volatile
> profiles.  On the other hand: if we could also move some of the features
> of the “package” sub-command under “profile” (e.g. those that relate to
> the management of, well, profiles), that could be a winning move.

If the new "guix profile" does more or less the same thing than the
current "guix environment", then I find the word "profile" confusing
because the concept of "profile" is not exactly the same elsewhere.

However, if the current CLI is changed is a bit, for example splitting
the current "guix package", then why not.

I mean, let consider the new command 'profile' with subcommands:
 - guix profile new
 - guix profile list
etc. i.e., managing the profiles as it has been recently described
(sorry too lazy to correctly refer where, but e.g., this thread [1]).

*and* with the subcommand 'create' or 'temporary' or <naming-is-hard>,
i.e., "guix profile create" doing more or less what the current "guix
environment" is doing.

Wouaouw! It is far far away from the initial idea behind this thread. :-)

[1] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2019-10/msg00565.html

All the best,
simon