5.3.1 Official Substitute Server

The ci.guix.gnu.org server is a front-end to an official build farm that builds packages from Guix continuously for some architectures, and makes them available as substitutes. This is the default source of substitutes; it can be overridden by passing the --substitute-urls option either to guix-daemon (see guix-daemon --substitute-urls) or to client tools such as guix package (see client --substitute-urls option).

Substitute URLs can be either HTTP or HTTPS. HTTPS is recommended because communications are encrypted; conversely, using HTTP makes all communications visible to an eavesdropper, who could use the information gathered to determine, for instance, whether your system has unpatched security vulnerabilities.

Substitutes from the official build farm are enabled by default when using Guix System (see GNU Distribution). However, they are disabled by default when using Guix on a foreign distribution, unless you have explicitly enabled them via one of the recommended installation steps (see Installation). The following paragraphs describe how to enable or disable substitutes for the official build farm; the same procedure can also be used to enable substitutes for any other substitute server.