== Profiles and home configuration

'''Q:''' I heard that there are different ways to declare or install software packages into the environment. What are the use cases, the pros and cons?

'''A:''' You can manage and use packages in three different ways:

* System wide (at OS configuration)

* Manually in the users [[default profile]]

* In your [[home configuration]] (portable across computers)

* Use temporary environments (via guix shell python python-pandas bash --)

'''WARNING''' Only packages installed in the same way play well together by default.
If you install the same package in different ways it will shadow all but one.

'''Explanation:''' You declared the vim editor package a system level package, so that it is available for everyone. But a user installed it in his default profile as well.
The system level vim is then shadowed. If - for some reason - the user additionally declares vim in his home configuration, it will shadow the others as well.

If you install extension packages like vim-nerdtree in the system profile it might not be available for the vim at default user profile or [[home configuration]] profile, because 
the matching vim is shadowed.

== CI / CD

'''Q:''' How do I guarantee that newer package versions are available on CI / CD?

'''A:''' There are several steps involved

----

* Step 1

Run 

{{{#!sh
guix refresh
}}}

on a twin machine to check for new package versions.

----

* Step 2

Run

{{{#!sh
guix graph
}}}

on the output of guix refresh to find dependencies.

----

* Step 3

Copy related source packages to CI / CD via USB drive

----

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