-*- mode: org; coding: utf-8; -*-

#+TITLE: Tentative GNU Guix Road Map

Copyright © 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>

  Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
  are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
  notice and this notice are preserved.

The goals of the GNU Guix project are two-fold:

  - to build a purely functional package manager, based on Nix and
    Guile;

  - to use it to build a practical 100% free software distribution of
    GNU/Linux and possibly other GNU variants, with a focus on the
    promotion and tight integration of GNU components–the GNU system.

Since its inception, the project has gone a long way towards that goal.  Below
is a list of items we want for version "1.0" of the Guix System Distribution.
There will be a few 0.x releases by then to give the new features more
exposure and testing.

You're welcome to discuss this road map on guix-devel@gnu.org or #guix on
Freenode!

* Features scheduled for 1.0

  - larger & more robust build farm
    + we need a powerful, dedicated front-end
    + armhf-linux build machine
    + leave Hydra in favor of 'guix publish' + custom code?
  - more OS features
    + LVM support
    + encrypted root
    + configurable name service switch
    + whole-system unit tests, using VMs
  - more service definitions
    + mcron, postfix(?), wicd(?), etc.
  - better 'guix system'
    + 'reconfigure' should be able to restart non-essential services
    + support for '--list-generations' and '--delete-generations'
  - better 'guix pull'
    + using Git to fetch the source instead of re-downloading everything
    + build more quickly
    + install new .mo files and new manual
    + authentication of the Guix source: use signed commits?
  - simplified, purely declarative service list in 'operating-system'
    + it should be possible to inspect the service instance declarations and
      settings
  - GUIs
    + integrate guix-web?
    + guile-ncurses installer?
  - 'guix publish'?

* Features for later

  - complete GNU/Hurd port
  - use content-based addressing when downloading substitutes to reduce
    bandwidth requirements
    + design nar v2 format where file contents are replaced by their hashes
    + leverage /gnu/store/.links
  - binary origin tracking
    + keep signatures in sqlite.db
    + preserve signatures upon import/export
  - peer-to-peer distribution of updates (GNUnet?)
  - more deterministic builds
    + identify & fix sources of non-determinism in builds
    + strengthen guix-daemon containers to further increase reproducibility
    + trusting-trust: bootstrap with different tool chains
    + fixed-point: re-bootstrap until fixed point is reached
    + distributed validation: compare contents of store items with others
      * resist a hydra.gnu.org compromise
  - reproducible containers: mix of 'guix environment' and 'guix system vm'
  - execute code with least privilege
    + build containers like guix-daemon does
    + provide a Plash-like interface in Bash
  - daemon rewritten in Guile
  - more shepherd integration
    + monitor network interfaces and start/stop events based on that
    + include a DHCP client written in Scheme

[test-on-test-end-gnu]: Conditionally print elapsed time.  Record it as the
optional metadata in the test result file (.trs).
* doc/guix.texi (Running the Test Suite): Document it.
</span></span></td><td>Maxim Cournoyer</td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2021-01-31 22:28:46 -0500'>2021-01-31</span></td><td><a href='/guix/commit/build-aux/test-driver.scm?id=26a66d0feaab7626c4053071d5557394931fe14b'>build: test-driver.scm: Allow running as a standalone script.</a><span class='msg-avail'>...<span class='msg-tooltip'>* build-aux/test-driver.scm: Add an exec-based shebang and set the script
executable bit.
(main): Insert a newline after the version string is printed with --version.
</span></span></td><td>Maxim Cournoyer</td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2021-01-31 22:28:46 -0500'>2021-01-31</span></td><td><a href='/guix/commit/build-aux/test-driver.scm?id=93a628c4e4f4a7f6665190f3c52a417daebaf28a'>build: test-driver.scm: Add a new '--errors-only' option.</a><span class='msg-avail'>...<span class='msg-tooltip'>* build-aux/test-driver.scm (show-help): Add the help text for the
new '--errors-only' option.
(%options): Add the errors-only option.
(test-runner-gnu): Add the errors-only? parameter and update doc.  Move the
logging of the test data after the test has completed, so a choice can be made
whether to keep it or discard it based on the value of the test result.
(main): Pass the errors-only? option to the driver.
* doc/guix.texi (Running the Test Suite): Document the new option.
</span></span></td><td>Maxim Cournoyer</td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2021-01-31 22:28:37 -0500'>2021-01-31</span></td><td><a href='/guix/commit/build-aux/test-driver.scm?id=a1ea2acb376c8a74f41ce0e683680417207b365a'>build: test-driver.scm: Add test cases filtering options.</a><span class='msg-avail'>...<span class='msg-tooltip'>* build-aux/test-driver.scm (show-help): Add help text for the new --select
and --exclude options.
(%options): Add the new select and exclude options.
(test-runner-gnu): Pass them to the test runner.  Update doc.
(test-match-name*, test-match-name*/negated, %test-match-all): New variables.
(main): Compute the test specifier based on the values of the new options and
apply it to the current test runner when running the test file.
* doc/guix.texi (Running the Test Suite): Document the new options.
</span></span></td><td>Maxim Cournoyer</td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2021-01-31 22:23:41 -0500'>2021-01-31</span></td><td><a href='/guix/commit/build-aux/test-driver.scm?id=346210b1b2130112dd5f894c1d40afb37c1c51a5'>build: test-driver.scm: Enable colored test results by default.</a><span class='msg-avail'>...<span class='msg-tooltip'>The Automake parallel test harness does its own smart detection of the
terminal color capability and always provides the --color-tests argument to
the driver.  This change defaults the --color-tests argument to true when the
test driver is run on its own (not via Automake).

* build-aux/test-driver.scm (main): Set the default value of the --color-tests
argument to true when it's not explicitly provided.
</span></span></td><td>Maxim Cournoyer</td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2021-01-31 22:23:41 -0500'>2021-01-31</span></td><td><a href='/guix/commit/build-aux/test-driver.scm?id=13f299b2c98cce0ede3a8a37dd11832fdb3827bb'>build: test-driver.scm: Make output redirection optional.</a><span class='msg-avail'>...<span class='msg-tooltip'>This makes it easier (and less surprising) for users to experiment with the
custom Scheme test driver directly.  The behavior is unchanged from Automake's
point of view.

* build-aux/test-driver.scm (main): Make the --log-file and --trs-file
arguments optional and update doc.  Only open, redirect and close a port to a log file when
the --log-file option is provided.  Only open and close a port to a trs file
when the --trs-file option is provided.
(test-runner-gnu): Set OUT-PORT parameter default value to the current output
port.  Set the TRS-PORT parameter default value to a void port.  Update doc.
</span></span></td><td>Maxim Cournoyer</td></tr>