@@ -3987,7 +3987,9 @@ Default profile
@node The benefits of manifests
@subsection The benefits of manifests
-Manifests are a convenient way to keep your package lists around and, say,
+Manifests let you @dfn{declare} the set of packages you'd like to have
+in a profile (@pxref{Writing Manifests,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual}).
+They are a convenient way to keep your package lists around and, say,
to synchronize them across multiple machines using a version control system.
A common complaint about manifests is that they can be slow to install when they
@@ -4064,16 +4066,18 @@ Reproducible profiles
@itemize
@item
-a manifest,
+a manifest (@pxref{Writing Manifests,,, guix, GNU Guix Reference Manual});
@item
-a Guix channel specification.
+a Guix channel specification (@pxref{Replicating Guix,,, guix, GNU Guix
+Reference Manual}).
@end itemize
Indeed, manifests alone might not be enough: different Guix versions (or
different channels) can produce different outputs for a given manifest.
You can output the Guix channel specification with @samp{guix describe
---format=channels}.
+--format=channels} (@pxref{Invoking guix describe,,, guix, GNU Guix
+Reference Manual}).
Save this to a file, say @samp{channel-specs.scm}.
On another computer, you can use the channel specification file and the manifest