Efraim Flashner

GNU Guix is a from-source distribution with binary substitutes available. It is also a functional package manager, meaning that all the inputs are hashed and the build results are placed in their own destination folder. Guix also does its best to minimize bootstrap seeds, instead relying on a few cross-compiled bootstrap binaries used to build all other packages on the system. This provides some interesting bootstrap issues, especially for newer architectures, as we need to recreate the bootstrap path as it may have existed years ago in order to support programming languages. Some languages, like nodejs or ocaml, need to have support backported only a few versions. Others like java need more than a decade. Rust needed to use an alternate implementation of rustc to be bootstrapped and Haskell currently isn't on the roadmap.

GNU Guix functions well as a package manager and has been extended to also serve as a full operating system, under the name Guix System. In this talk I will show how it is possible to declaratively create operating system images for specific uses. Different than a 'spin' of a distribution, these can be used as a one-off live image or as a starting image to install to a computer before making further tweaks. Create your own minimal rescue image without needing to remaster media or use loopback mounts.

Containers do a great job separating out different parts of a system, making sure that they don't interact unless we want them to. What happens when a colleague hands us a project they've written and we're supposed to host it for them? They're not programmers, they're scientists. Who knows what they have in their program? How can we keep it up to date and deployed with a minimum of fuss? Come and see how we've solved this problem with Guix, from rebuilding or replacing the dependencies with modern versions like a pro, having only the bare minimum required software in the container, deploying in an artisanally crafted container like a hero, and upgrading and rolling back when ready.

Rust is a language with a healthy ecosystem and a strong developer base. With built-in dependency management it's easy to build and install new programs even for those who have never used the language. But how is its adoption among Linux distros? Come with me as we figure out how best to package rust libraries and binaries in Linux distributions which demand total control over dependency management.