Subject: [bug#72314] claims Guix can make about reproducibility (was Re: [bug#72314] [PATCH v1 1/3] website: Redesign home page.)

From: "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2024 08:26:25 +0200

Luis Felipe <[email-masked]> writes:
>> Could you, Luis, in a new version of the patch add an asterisk that
>> preserving likely will work but not always and we cannot guarantee this
>> yet?  Cc to others for opinions.
>
> Sure. I'll wait for other's opinions to see how to rewrite that part.
>
> When I presented the proposal, Simon had suggested changing that
> particular part to "Get the same environment in the future"
> (https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2023-10/msg00137.html). Maybe
> that would be enough?

I had read the thread; but somehow missed Simon’s comment...  Yes, if
that rewording makes Simon happy already, we can do that.

However, writing “in the future“ (or just removing the word 50 from “50
years later”) could lead to misconceptions.  There are concrete bugs
hindering near-term reproducibility for some packages (e.g. those using
mercurial) [1].

Soo ... add an ugly asterisk saying “*currently only guaranteed for most
packages“?

> I thought it would possible, in theory, to travel waay back with Guix
> plus archives like Software Heritage in a very distant future... Oh
> well :)

Most but not all kinds of packages get archived currently AFAIU.

Regards,
Florian

[1] https://hal.science/hal-04586520v1