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authorLudovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>2015-05-17 22:53:11 +0200
committerLudovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>2015-05-17 22:53:18 +0200
commit8c3a5d7059a24e9c6d7bf14be296169cdcf06ad6 (patch)
tree6438958711340a08233eb485231a7e7fc3ac0618
parentd41a8a07b2bad21e971702c863e1ba629c1f692d (diff)
downloadguix-8c3a5d7059a24e9c6d7bf14be296169cdcf06ad6.tar.gz
doc: Suggest how to preserve /var and /root owner and permissions.
Reported by Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr>.

* doc/guix.texi (Binary Installation): Suggest --skip-old-files when
  extracting the archive.
-rw-r--r--doc/guix.texi8
1 files changed, 7 insertions, 1 deletions
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.