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authorLudovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>2015-05-22 11:08:28 +0200
committerLudovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>2015-05-22 11:51:12 +0200
commit99bd74d549bc893e79a541b4e71ceac3909b7cff (patch)
treea06e6909f3f02d42649dc79fa65f047ec06c0311 /doc/guix.texi
parent6fb4fb717d32d2999572c972ddf6433864d6becf (diff)
doc: Make '--manifest' more visible.
* doc/guix.texi (Invoking guix package): Mention the declarative approach and --manifest in the intro. And an anchor for --manifest. Explain why/how it can be used. Tweak wording.
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/guix.texi')
-rw-r--r--doc/guix.texi32
1 files changed, 24 insertions, 8 deletions
diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi
index fd0d29cb8f..4b7f06f06a 100644
--- a/doc/guix.texi
+++ b/doc/guix.texi
@@ -941,7 +941,7 @@ guix package @var{options}
Primarily, @var{options} specifies the operations to be performed during
the transaction. Upon completion, a new profile is created, but
-previous generations of the profile remain available, should the user
+previous @dfn{generations} of the profile remain available, should the user
want to roll back.
For example, to remove @code{lua} and install @code{guile} and
@@ -951,6 +951,11 @@ For example, to remove @code{lua} and install @code{guile} and
guix package -r lua -i guile guile-cairo
@end example
+@command{guix package} also supports a @dfn{declarative approach}
+whereby the user specifies the exact set of packages to be available and
+passes it @i{via} the @option{--manifest} option
+(@pxref{profile-manifest, @option{--manifest}}).
+
For each user, a symlink to the user's default profile is automatically
created in @file{$HOME/.guix-profile}. This symlink always points to the
current generation of the user's default profile. Thus, users can add
@@ -1062,21 +1067,32 @@ substring ``emacs'':
$ guix package --upgrade . --do-not-upgrade emacs
@end example
-@item --manifest=@var{file}
+@item @anchor{profile-manifest}--manifest=@var{file}
@itemx -m @var{file}
-Create a new @dfn{generation} of the profile from the manifest object
+@cindex profile declaration
+@cindex profile manifest
+Create a new generation of the profile from the manifest object
returned by the Scheme code in @var{file}.
-A manifest file may look like this:
+This allows you to @emph{declare} the profile's contents rather than
+constructing it through a sequence of @code{--install} and similar
+commands. The advantage is that @var{file} can be put under version
+control, copied to different machines to reproduce the same profile, and
+so on.
+
+@c FIXME: Add reference to (guix profile) documentation when available.
+@var{file} must return a @dfn{manifest} object, which is roughly a list
+of packages:
+@findex packages->manifest
@example
-(use-package-modules guile emacs gcc)
+(use-package-modules guile emacs)
(packages->manifest
- (list guile-2.0
- emacs
+ (list emacs
+ guile-2.0
;; Use a specific package output.
- (list gcc "debug")))
+ (list guile-2.0 "debug")))
@end example
@item --roll-back