Subject: bug#46767: /run/booted-system can be removed by ‘guix system delete-generations’

From: Ludovic Courtès <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2021 10:00:34 +0100

/run/booted-system is not protected from GC.  Here’s what I observed on
a machine with unattended upgrades (which includes automatic removal of
old system generations):

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
~$ ls -l /run/booted-system 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 Nov  2 16:06 /run/booted-system -> /var/guix/profiles/system-68-link
~$ ls -l /var/guix/profiles/system-68-link
ls: cannot access '/var/guix/profiles/system-68-link': No such file or directory
~$ ls -lrt /var/guix/profiles/system-*-link
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Nov 29 01:34 /var/guix/profiles/system-74-link -> /gnu/store/ym7bs9pp9lxy0s1pjfrbic0pjjr7svzd-system
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Dec  6 01:33 /var/guix/profiles/system-75-link -> /gnu/store/ivxak4d58gqz2xqihkc636nhwhpa1fs4-system
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Dec 13 01:35 /var/guix/profiles/system-76-link -> /gnu/store/wqpwlqlfsc4yqm0nypzvan1a8sb9xmcc-system
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Dec 27 01:33 /var/guix/profiles/system-77-link -> /gnu/store/y539xw934mbdcqidg6zaxrzq9hy8hm9p-system
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Jan  4 09:29 /var/guix/profiles/system-78-link -> /gnu/store/3582jh1v9vn51wasyl1y189ng4vhqiy9-system
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Jan 10 01:33 /var/guix/profiles/system-79-link -> /gnu/store/q67avpz4bfhq2zyfhh8ka6q9hpqzc3xj-system
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Jan 17 01:33 /var/guix/profiles/system-80-link -> /gnu/store/13bwrvjgsl16sigwpa93yr4r51qnm8zi-system
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Jan 19 14:23 /var/guix/profiles/system-81-link -> /gnu/store/v151wf6lj4ivgj3xwysi9fdmva55jzqp-system
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Jan 24 01:35 /var/guix/profiles/system-82-link -> /gnu/store/rvarwdsymd94am8bc8b1rx2xdrxcvx6l-system
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Jan 31 01:33 /var/guix/profiles/system-83-link -> /gnu/store/0sgd2yb702483zi3hl04wv4r4rn3ibcy-system
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Feb  7 01:32 /var/guix/profiles/system-84-link -> /gnu/store/bix4yp9zs2h3vy8zi9ap9mazap727hng-system
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Feb 14 01:33 /var/guix/profiles/system-85-link -> /gnu/store/702l59w3gbsc45c7nffsyv89vnaky5zc-system
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Feb 21 01:34 /var/guix/profiles/system-86-link -> /gnu/store/qq4rz2fprvnsgqhj24v735hhmp189jl8-system
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

This is bad but mostly harmless since all the packages actually in use
are GC-protected anyway, via ‘guix gc --list-busy’.

It breaks things like ‘guix deploy’ though.  Specifically, its remote
initrd module check in (gnu machine ssh) looks for
/run/booted-system/kernel/lib/modules/KERNEL-VERSION/modules.alias, via
‘missing-modules’ of (gnu build linux-modules).  That code throws
because ‘modules.alias’ is supposed to exist, which in turn leads ‘guix
deploy’ to crash badly:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ guix time-machine -C channels.scm -- deploy deploy.scm
The following 1 machine will be deployed:
  guix-hpc

guix deploy: deploying to guix-hpc...
substitute: updating substitutes from 'https://ci.guix.gnu.org'... 100.0%
La jenaj derivoj estos konstruataj:
   /gnu/store/nh0n44vb4i445msj6g6i0kwyp3jgs39c-remote-exp.scm.drv
   /gnu/store/44271p6fvygx0fa7dvjhmqz7jwnnr9sc-remote-assertion.scm.drv
   /gnu/store/5nqzxyal9lhhga7bz9qf6hvml5v862xw-remote-assertion.scm.drv

0.0 MB will be downloaded
downloading from https://ci.guix.gnu.org/nar/lzip/1q9118pw4d18ihj91csfilbg6x2x29am-module-import-compiled ...
 module-import-compiled  8KiB                                                1.7MiB/s 00:00 [##################] 100.0%

building /gnu/store/44271p6fvygx0fa7dvjhmqz7jwnnr9sc-remote-assertion.scm.drv...
building /gnu/store/5nqzxyal9lhhga7bz9qf6hvml5v862xw-remote-assertion.scm.drv...
building /gnu/store/nh0n44vb4i445msj6g6i0kwyp3jgs39c-remote-exp.scm.drv...
guix deploy: sending 8 store items (5 MiB) to 'localhost'...

FORMAT: error with call: (format #f "missing modules for ~a:~{ ~a~}<===~%" #<file-system-label "root"> ===>#f )
        expected a list argument
FORMAT: INTERNAL ERROR IN FORMAT-ERROR!
        destination: #f
        format string: "missing modules for ~a:~{ ~a~}~%"
        format args: (#<file-system-label "root"> #f)
        error args:  (#f "error in format" () #f)
Backtrace:
In guix/store.scm:
   1305:8 19 (call-with-build-handler #<procedure 7f0d3cc35240 at guix/ui.scm:1171:2 (continue store things mode)> _)
In guix/scripts/deploy.scm:
   170:14 18 (_)
In guix/store.scm:
   1346:2 17 (map/accumulate-builds #<store-connection 256.99 7f0d39c6c000> _ _)
In srfi/srfi-1.scm:
   586:17 16 (map1 (#<<unresolved> things: (("/gnu/store/b5nnbpgkvgdpzgvj67539ylcaqacj90l-guile-3.0.2.drv" . "out"…>))
In guix/store.scm:
   1305:8 15 (call-with-build-handler #<procedure build-accumulator (continue store things mode)> _)
In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
  1736:10 14 (with-exception-handler _ _ #:unwind? _ #:unwind-for-type _)
In guix/scripts/deploy.scm:
    144:6 13 (_)
In guix/store.scm:
  2066:24 12 (run-with-store #<store-connection 256.99 7f0d39c6c000> _ #:guile-for-build _ #:system _ #:target _)
In gnu/machine/ssh.scm:
    445:2 11 (_ _)
    338:4 10 (_ _)
In srfi/srfi-1.scm:
   650:11  9 (for-each #<procedure 7f0d3e372d28 at gnu/machine/ssh.scm:338:14 (proc value)> _ _)
In gnu/machine/ssh.scm:
   275:26  8 (_ #f)
In ice-9/format.scm:
   1546:2  7 (format #f "missing modules for ~a:~{ ~a~}~%" #<file-system-label "root"> #f)
   571:24  6 (format:format-work "missing modules for ~a:~{ ~a~}~%" (#<file-system-label "root"> #f))
In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
  1736:10  5 (with-exception-handler _ _ #:unwind? _ #:unwind-for-type _)
In ice-9/format.scm:
   102:10  4 (_)
In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
  1669:16  3 (raise-exception _ #:continuable? _)
  1669:16  2 (raise-exception _ #:continuable? _)
  1669:16  1 (raise-exception _ #:continuable? _)
  1669:16  0 (raise-exception _ #:continuable? _)

ice-9/boot-9.scm:1669:16: In procedure raise-exception:
error in format
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Ludo’.