Subject: bug#62460: Upgrading manifest based profile while keeping an intentionally older version of one package.

From: Martin Castillo <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2023 14:01:16 +0200

Hi,

if someone has a profile made with a manifest like

     (specifications->manifest '("gcc@11"))

and they want to update it, they might run guix package -p the-profile -u

which would currently install gcc@12, or they would run something like

package -p the-profile -m manifest.scm -u

which aborts with this unintelligible message:

Backtrace:
           12 (primitive-load "/home/mcd/.config/guix/current/bin/guix")
In guix/ui.scm:
    2300:7 11 (run-guix . _)
   2263:10 10 (run-guix-command _ . _)
In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
   1752:10  9 (with-exception-handler _ _ #:unwind? _ # _)
In guix/status.scm:
     850:3  8 (_)
     830:4  7 (call-with-status-report _ _)
In guix/store.scm:
    1298:8  6 (call-with-build-handler #<procedure 7f2b7918fdb0 at g…> …)
In guix/build/syscalls.scm:
    1442:3  5 (_)
    1408:4  4 (call-with-file-lock/no-wait "mani.lock" #<procedure 7…> …)
In guix/scripts/package.scm:
     708:4  3 (_)
In srfi/srfi-1.scm:
    460:18  2 (fold #<procedure 7f2b65ea1840 at guix/scripts/package…> …)
In guix/scripts/package.scm:
     233:4  1 (transaction-upgrade-entry _ _ _)
In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
   1685:16  0 (raise-exception _ #:continuable? _)

ice-9/boot-9.scm:1685:16: In procedure raise-exception:
Throw to key `match-error' with args `("match" "no matching pattern" 
#<<manifest-entry> name: "gcc" version: "11.3.0" output: "out" item: 
#<package [email-masked] gnu/packages/gcc.scm:680 7f2b66b68420> 
dependencies: () search-paths: (#<<search-path-specification> variable: 
"C_INCLUDE_PATH" files: ("include") separator: ":" file-type: directory 
file-pattern: #f> #<<search-path-specification> variable: 
"CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH" files: ("include/c++" "include") separator: ":" 
file-type: directory file-pattern: #f> #<<search-path-specification> 
variable: "LIBRARY_PATH" files: ("lib" "lib64") separator: ":" 
file-type: directory file-pattern: #f>) parent: #<promise #<procedure 
7f2b769c0d00 at guix/profiles.scm:381:48 ()>> properties: ((provenance 
(repository (version 0) (url 
"https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git") (branch "master") (commit 
"3a2200e1ad2049ad7e25295e6b4e013f74dd84e2") (name guix) (introduction 
(channel-introduction (version 0) (commit 
"9edb3f66fd807b096b48283debdcddccfea34bad") (signer "BBB0 2DDF 2CEA F6A8 
0D1D  E643 A2A0 6DF2 A33A 54FA"))))))>)'.

It would be nicer if the user got a hint how to properly upgrade such a 
(or any manifest based) profile instead of a backtrace. Additionally, 
the documentation of guix package -u could note that.

Martin