Subject: Re: bug#45360: Cannot log in to GNOME on foreign distro with Guix

From: Ricardo Wurmus <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2020 13:34:22 +0100

Carlo Zancanaro <[email-masked]> writes:

>> Is this a bug, or is it possible I've just misconfigured something?
>
> We should consider this a bug, because Guix's attempt to add to the
> XDG_DATA_DIRS environment variable clobbers the default value that
> foreign distributions are relying on.

Is this something we can avoid by patching … something to use a
Guix-specific variable?  This variable can cause a lot of trouble when
using Guix on foreign distros, but I don’t know how we can prevent
system software from loading stuff from XDG_DATA_DIRS for Guix and vice
versa without renaming the variables.

A related question: should Guix software ignore XDG_DATA_DIRS when set
by the system?  Or is it enough to make it respect an *additional*
variable like GUIX_XDG_DATA_DIRS, which we would have Guix set?

> We should at least document this in the manual, maybe in "(guix)
> Application Setup".

If it’s an easy workaround: yes.  But if it’s a bug we can actually fix
I’d rather see it fixed :)

-- 
Ricardo