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| -rw-r--r-- | doc/guix.texi | 13 |
1 files changed, 9 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi index a5c9779c86..b7187963b7 100644 --- a/doc/guix.texi +++ b/doc/guix.texi @@ -32789,10 +32789,15 @@ Bootstrapping in our context refers to how the distribution gets built ``from nothing''. Remember that the build environment of a derivation contains nothing but its declared inputs (@pxref{Introduction}). So there's an obvious chicken-and-egg problem: how does the first package -get built? How does the first compiler get compiled? Note that this is -a question of interest only to the curious hacker, not to the regular -user, so you can shamelessly skip this section if you consider yourself -a ``regular user''. +get built? How does the first compiler get compiled? + +It is tempting to think of this question as one that only die-hard +hackers may care about. However, while the answer to that question is +technical in nature, its implications are wide-ranging. How the +distribution is bootstrapped defines the extent to which we, as +individuals and as a collective of users and hackers, can trust the +software we run. It is a central concern from the standpoint of +@emph{security} and from a @emph{user freedom} viewpoint. @cindex bootstrap binaries The GNU system is primarily made of C code, with libc at its core. The |