Subject: Re: bug#56661: EMACSLOADPATH not set when using Guix System + Guix Home + SDDM + Mate

From: Maxime Devos <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2022 11:28:29 +0200

On 20-07-2022 19:47, Andrew Tropin wrote:
> I'm not sure how your login/display manager works, but for X11 session
> sourcing ~/.profile from ~/.xsession should do the trick.
>
> Put the following content to your ~/.xsession:
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> . ~/.profile
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
> Or add the following service to your home environment:
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> (simple-service
>   'xsession-init-file
>   home-files-service-type
>   `((".xsession" ,(plain-file "xsession" ". ~/.profile"))))
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Tweaking .xsession was not necessary in my previous Guix System without 
Home setup, so this seems like a work-around to me, not a solution.

However, possibly this is a bug in the setup of the login manager I used 
(previously I used another one), so I will try a different login manager 
as possibly Guix Home is not related here.

> They do.  Also, shouldn't ~/.bash_profile point to
> ~/.guix-home/files/.bash_profile instead of directly to the store, to be
> more atomic (unrelated to #56661 though), like done for symlinks in /etc
> in Guix System?
> No.
>
> Activation is not atomic process anyway.
I know it is not atomic. That's the issue I noted, an issue that seems 
to have a partial solution I also noted.

With current file system APIs, it cannot be made fully atomic, but as 
done for Guix System things, it can at least be made _partially_ atomic 
-- i.e., when no files are added or removed relative to the previous 
generation, the symlink switching is atomic.

(A form of 'Perfect enemy of the good' -- if perfect (= 100% atomic) 
cannot be found, then that's no reason to throw away good (= mostly 
atomic).)

(Also an instance of is-ought: it is not atomic, but that doesn't mean 
it should be non-atomic.)

Greetings,
Maxime.