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

From: Mark H Weaver <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2021 15:56:33 -0400

bo0od <[email-masked]> writes:

>  > I mean the ‘outrageously’ part.  When Linux runs out of memory, it
>  > freezes up.  Moral judgment is futile.  Better to adopt raingloom's
>  > earlyoom suggestion or similar.
>
> Im using default guix system nothing special, If this package usable to 
> solve these stuff i suggest then to include it by default.

'earlyoom' behavior is not necessarily desirable.  I, for one, have a
fairly old computer by today's standards, and sometimes I ask it to do
intensive things that are at the edge of its capabilities, such as
compiling GNU IceCat.  An aggressive 'earlyoom' might prematurely abort
jobs that could have completed, and thereby make it impossible for me to
continue using this old computer for development.

With that in mind, it's far from clear that 'earlyoom' should be our
default behavior.  It's good to have it as an option, though.

>  > 4 GiB is absolutely not enough to build an outrageous amount of ‘modern’
>  > software, especially in parallel (so not using --cores=1 --max-jobs=1)
>  > to make use of those expensive cores.
>  >
>  > I'm disgusted too.
>
> Yes it is, But you know this cant be a way of life with guix for end 
> user no? Something by default should solve this matter otherwise this is 
> not usable distro.

Many people are happily using it, and are quite enthusiastic about it,
so evidently it's "usable".  That doesn't imply that it's good for
everyone.  Perhaps you would prefer a more traditional distro, or one
that has had more time to mature.  If so, that's okay.

      Regards,
        Mark