Subject: bug#44735: gilbc of the running system got wiped while building a package, system broken

From: Stefan <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2020 14:55:19 +0100

Hi!

I found the root cause of this issue: I made a typo and inadvertently did a “./configure --localstatedir=/vaar”.

The manual should warn that using a wrong (or omitted) --localstatedir may destroy the guix installation and possibly the whole guix system.

What can be done to prevent that a simple mistake like this destroys a system?

Having the configure command boxed inside the manual would at least reduce the risk of overlooking this, see also https://issues.guix.gnu.org/40848. But this still does not prevent anything.

Bye

Stefan