From 8c3a5d7059a24e9c6d7bf14be296169cdcf06ad6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: =?UTF-8?q?Ludovic=20Court=C3=A8s?= Date: Sun, 17 May 2015 22:53:11 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] doc: Suggest how to preserve /var and /root owner and permissions. Reported by Andreas Enge . * doc/guix.texi (Binary Installation): Suggest --skip-old-files when extracting the archive. --- doc/guix.texi | 8 +++++++- 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi index 049292ddff..7dd32c46c8 100644 --- a/doc/guix.texi +++ b/doc/guix.texi @@ -269,12 +269,18 @@ As @code{root}, run: @example # cd / -# tar xf guix-binary-@value{VERSION}.@var{system}.tar.xz +# tar --skip-old-files -xf \ + guix-binary-@value{VERSION}.@var{system}.tar.xz @end example This creates @file{/gnu/store} (@pxref{The Store}), @file{/var/guix}, and @file{/root/.guix-profile}. @file{/root/.guix-profile} is a ready-to-use profile for @code{root} where Guix is installed. +@c '--skip-old-files' does the right thing with tar 1.28. The manual +@c does not clearly document the behavior we describe here, though. +The @code{--skip-old-files} option allows you to make sure the owner and +permissions on @file{/var} and @file{/root} are preserved (@pxref{Option +Summary, @code{--skip-old-files},, tar, GNU tar: an archiver tool}). Do @emph{not} unpack the tarball on a working Guix system since that would overwrite its own essential files.