Subject: [bug#48435] Bringing substitutes from the Guix Build Coordinator to users

From: Christopher Baines <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2021 15:53:07 +0100

Christopher Baines <[email-masked]> writes:

> Christopher Baines <[email-masked]> writes:
>
>> Is there still a path to bring some of these benefits to users, and if
>> so, what things need doing?
>
> It's been a few weeks now, so to summarise, I think only one path
> emerged, and that is to get substitutes from bayfront to users.

More weeks have past, it's taking me longer to get things sorted out
that I'd like, but things are still moving forward.

> Bayfront was already running the Guix Build Coordinator (although only
> for the last month), and it's now caught up to the point where I'm
> seeing similar or better substitute availability percentages for
> x86_64-linux (and powerpc64le-linux) when compared to
> ci.guix.gnu.org. It's also building i686-linux and aarch64-linux things,
> but they're still catching up.

Substitute availability for x86_64-linux and i686-linux should be
roughly comparable to ci.guix.gnu.org.  powerpc64le-linux substitute
availability is OK, and aarch64-linux might even be doing better than
ci.guix.gnu.org somehow.

Other things like armhf-linux and i586-gnu are still very much works in
progress.

> Obviously just having the substitutes doesn't magically get them to
> users, so I've started looking in to the changes to start making that
> happen. Adding the signing key and changing the defaults in a few places
> seems like a good step forward [1].
>
> 1: https://issues.guix.gnu.org/48435

I've gone ahead and put the key in to the Guix git repository [1] and
sent an updated patch for changing various bits of configuration [2].

1: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/commit/?id=26499816a973b3aab9aaf8e13b909d0bde4e2dd5
2: https://issues.guix.gnu.org/48435#8

I think the patch still needs a bit more work, mostly to update the
docs. I'll try to work out what needs tweaking in the docs and send a v3
ASAP.

In terms of what to initially change, I'm still not sure if there's
something that needs updating that I'm currently missing, or something
that I'm updating that can be done later.

> Apart from merging the changes in [1], I guess a blog post might be
> useful. Have I missed anything?

I'll start another thread on guix-devel to solicit feedback about
substitutes from bordeaux.guix.gnu.org, I'm not sure what specifically
about, but peoples observations might be helpful when writing a blog
post about this. I'll also try to start drafting a blog post.

What else needs doing to actually get these substitutes to users?

Thanks,

Chris