[Bio-packaging] testing out guix

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Pjotr Prins <pjotr.public66 at thebird.nl> writes:

>> * OSX support seems like it would be very pertinent for
>> bioinformaticians, does/will guix support?
>
> Nix has OSX support, and there is also little in Guix that can not be
> ported to OSX (GNU Guix has multiple targets and even supports the
> Hurd!). I expect someone will do it. The project is only gaining
> momentum, so once someone competent has the itch to scratch...

Actually, I just found out that I *do* have a spare OSX machine lying
around here (it was just returned).  I'll need to check with Ludo about
how to approach porting and see if I can make time for it.

I have *never* used a Mac before, so it'll all be very new to me, but
with some help and sufficient hints I might be able to get the bootstrap
stuff compiled.

>> * Installing from gnu hydra is way slow on the underside of the
>> planet, I'm getting DL speeds of 70KB/s. There's no mirrors?
>
> We need to create mirrors. I don't think it is hard to do. Ricardo,
> what do you think?

I know that it's possible to add machines to the Guix build farm.
Alternatively, one could run Hydra on a couple of dedicated machines and
offer an additional build farm (maybe limited to x86_64) which could
then be authorized.  I don't think "dumb" rsync mirrors are possible at
this point, but I'm not the right person to ask, I'm afraid.

~~ Ricardo