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Guix supports exporting to Docker containers. A guix.scm file then becomes a reproducible alternative to a Dockerfile. However, Guix has its own container impl
by snicker7 5y ago
Guix supports exporting to Docker containers. A guix.scm file then becomes a reproducible alternative to a Dockerfile.
However, Guix has its own container implementation. And this is significantly lighter than Docker (instead of layers, links to /gnu/store) and is root-less. If Guix containers had a runc-compatability layer and better docs/tutorials, it would be hard to go back to Docker/podman.
- rekado 5y agoI have been using Guix-generated reproducible Docker images for years. I'll never go back to using Docker directly. Could you please elaborate what you mean by "runc-compatability layer"? And what about the docs requires clarification? (I wrote the original Docker export backend for "guix pack", so I have an interest in improving this feature where necessary.)
- snicker7 5y agoI am referring to a hypothetical dockerless OCI compatability layer built on top of `guix shell --container` or `guix system container`. I sort of got this idea from runj [0], an attempt to create an OCI compatible runtime for FreeBSD jails. The main advantage is to use certain OCI-compatible tools (e.g. k8s) with Guix without needing to use Docker. [0] https://samuel.karp.dev/blog/2021/03/runj-a-new-oci-runtime-for-freebsd-jails/ https://samuel.karp.dev/blog/2021/03/runj-a-new-oci-runtime-...