Subject: bug#47717: guix outrageously exhaust itself (freeze) when there is package build failure

From: bo0od <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2021 11:34:41 +0000

> Your subject was quite dramatic and probably not true.  Try to avoid 
both.

yes sound dramatic but i couldnt describe what happened better. about 
"not true" i posted the error message and i dunno if there is something 
i can post describing when there is freeze.

 > Take a look at (and next time, attach)
 >
 >   $ bzless
 > 
/var/log/guix/drvs/5a/8xxi15g20iqr78daw3w1c7xyqmmd1k-vigra-1.11.1.drv.bz2

check the uploaded .txt file

 > the log file mentioned in the error message.  You'll probably find the
 > string ‘Killed’ near the end.  If you haven't rebooted yet,
 >
 >   $ grep oom /proc/vmstat

i already rebooted the machine.

 > but the root cause is
 > you simply don't have enough memory to build this package at its default
 > settings.

4G of ram not enough? That would be interesting if its not.

 > there's a libreoffice substitute on ci.guix.gnu.org.  Are substitutes
 > configured and enabled?

No, i dont like workarounds because when i report bugs i try to put 
myself in the position of new user. If substitutes are essentials for 
users then it should be enabled by default , or switched automatically 
if there is something bad happened like this issue. And if its not then 
the default configurations has something need to be fixed/improved to 
avoid issues like the one i have reported.

> Hi bo0od,
> 
> Your subject was quite dramatic and probably not true.  Try to avoid both.
> 
> bo0od writes:
>> The real issue it caused guix to freeze for like not less than 2+
>> hours and i couldnt do anything with the distro until guix cut out
>> the build/upgradation by itself.
> 
> Take a look at (and next time, attach)
> 
>   $ bzless 
>   /var/log/guix/drvs/5a/8xxi15g20iqr78daw3w1c7xyqmmd1k-vigra-1.11.1.drv.bz2
> 
> the log file mentioned in the error message.  You'll probably find the 
> string ‘Killed’ near the end.  If you haven't rebooted yet,
> 
>   $ grep oom /proc/vmstat
> 
> will probably return something non-zero.
> 
> If so: you ran out of memory while building a heavy package.  This 
> causes your system to become unresponsive whilst it tries to postpone 
> that for as long as possible.  This is a fact of Linux.
> 
> You can try to work around it by adding RAM, passing ‘-{M,c}1’ to the 
> guix command that failed, and/or enabling swap, but the root cause is 
> you simply don't have enough memory to build this package at its default 
> settings.
> 
> Or, you can make sure you download a substitute instead of trying to 
> build everything locally.  At the time of writing (commit d14f213) 
> there's a libreoffice substitute on ci.guix.gnu.org.  Are substitutes 
> configured and enabled?
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> T G-R