GNU bug report logs - #54919
Guix hangs near the end of ‘home’ operations

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Brian Cully <bjc <at> spork.org>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: Guix hangs near the end of ‘home’ operations
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2022 15:43:11 -0400

	During ‘home reconfigure’ after it says ‘Finished updating symlinks.’,
guix hangs forever. Attempting to interrupt with ^C failed, and I had to
force-close my ssh session.

	Logging back in, ‘home list-generations’ claims to have
installed a new generation and moved forward. I no longer knew the state
of this generation, since I had to forcefully quit the previous
operation, so I felt it safest to try to roll back my home.

	Again, ‘home roll-back’ got to ‘Finished updating symlinks’ and
hard hung. I probably don’t need to tell anyone how this makes me feel
about the stability of this system or any guarantees of atomicity in
transactions.

-bjc

Message #10 received at 54919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: Brian Cully <bjc <at> spork.org>
Cc: 54919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#54919: Guix hangs near the end of ‘home’ operations
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2022 17:23:34 +0200

Hi Brian,

Brian Cully <bjc <at> spork.org> skribis:

> 	During ‘home reconfigure’ after it says ‘Finished updating symlinks.’,
> guix hangs forever. Attempting to interrupt with ^C failed, and I had to
> force-close my ssh session.

I’ve experienced this hang too: it occurs while ‘guix system
reconfigure’ is running ‘herd load root …’ to reload the shepherd
services (so the upgrade did take place, as can be seen in ‘guix home
describe’, but shepherd services may not have been upgraded).

I believe this has to do with commit
22ab90146665ad4e624421f297dd284f00ebe6ce.

We can probably fix it by avoiding the use of ‘start-in-the-background’.

Ludo’.

Message #13 received at 54919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: Brian Cully <bjc <at> spork.org>
Cc: 54919 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#54919: Guix hangs near the end of ‘home’ operations
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2022 17:26:22 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org> skribis:

> We can probably fix it by avoiding the use of ‘start-in-the-background’.

Specifically, the proposed fix is attached below.  I cannot test it
right now so I’m happy if somebody else can confirm the intuition in the
meantime :-) by applying the patch and running:

  ./pre-inst-env guix home reconfigure …

from there.

Ludo’.

[Message part 2 (text/x-patch, inline)]

diff --git a/gnu/home/services/shepherd.scm b/gnu/home/services/shepherd.scm
index df6bbb30e6..3ac29cb005 100644
--- a/gnu/home/services/shepherd.scm
+++ b/gnu/home/services/shepherd.scm
@@ -82,9 +82,7 @@ (define config
                  '#$(append-map shepherd-service-provision
                                 (filter shepherd-service-auto-start?
                                         services))))
-            (if (defined? 'start-in-the-background)
-                (start-in-the-background services-to-start)
-                (for-each start services-to-start)))))
+            (for-each start services-to-start))))
 
     (scheme-file "shepherd.conf" config)))
 

Message #20 received at 54919-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: Brian Cully <bjc <at> spork.org>
Cc: 54919-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#54919: Guix hangs near the end of ‘home’ operations
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2022 00:11:38 +0200

Turns out the issue was also being discussed at
<https://issues.guix.gnu.org/54779>.  Fixed now!

Thanks,
Ludo’.

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