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[bug#53447] Introducing ‘GUIX_’-prefixed environment variables
From: |
Maxim Cournoyer |
Subject: |
[bug#53447] Introducing ‘GUIX_’-prefixed environment variables |
Date: |
Tue, 25 Jan 2022 20:56:41 -0500 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/27.2 (gnu/linux) |
Hi Ludovic,
Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:
> Hi,
>
> Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com> skribis:
>
>> I like to see this as a bug, so I've opened one as 53514; Guix should
>> strive to not mess with the host environment, and setting global
>> variables used by both Guix and a potentially foreign host goes against
>> this. The proper fix would be to patch all applications in Guix to use
>> Guix-specific variables, such as GUIX_XDG_DATA_DIRS instead of
>> XDG_DATA_DIRS.
>
> This approach has its appeal (like in the ‘GUIX_PYTHONPATH’ case), but
> there’s a tension with our other unwritten (?) guideline that we should
> modify packages as little as possible.
>
> Such wide-ranging changes would have the unfortunate effect that they’d
> make Guix packages “special”: documentation, bug reports, suggestions
> you’d find online would apply to the “real” package, but maybe not to
> the Guix one. That is a situation we’d rather avoid IMO.
True; but after people would get a hang that in Guix most environment
variables would be prefixed with 'GUIX_', I don't think it'd be that big
of an issue. Maintaining the patches would be where the burden would
lie, in my opinion.
> ‘XDG_DATA_DIRS’ is a real problem though. In large part that’s because
> its purpose is too broad—what “data dirs” are we talking about? It
> would be ideal if we could progressively replace ‘XDG_DATA_DIRS’ search
> path specifications with more specific environment variables, when they
> exist, or perhaps by using ‘wrap-program’ instead of having search path
> specs.
Are there any more specific environment variables that exist that can
replace XDG_DATA_DIRS? I'm not too knowledgeable about the freedesktop
specs, but I'm somewhat skeptical? If they don't yet exist, that makes
this idea much less actionable.
Thanks,
Maxim
- [bug#53447] [PATCH] doc: Unset environment variables considered harmful, Liliana Marie Prikler, 2022/01/22
- [bug#53447] [PATCH] doc: Unset environment variables considered harmful, Ludovic Courtès, 2022/01/22
- [bug#53447] [PATCH] doc: Unset environment variables considered harmful, Liliana Marie Prikler, 2022/01/22
- [bug#53447] [PATCH] doc: Unset environment variables considered harmful, Maxim Cournoyer, 2022/01/24
- [bug#53447] Introducing ‘GUIX_’-prefixed environment variables, Ludovic Courtès, 2022/01/25
- [bug#53447] Introducing ‘GUIX_’-prefixed environment variables,
Maxim Cournoyer <=
- [bug#53447] Introducing ‘GUIX_’-prefixed environment variables, Ludovic Courtès, 2022/01/26
- [bug#53447] Introducing ‘GUIX_’-prefixed environment variables, Liliana Marie Prikler, 2022/01/26
- [bug#53447] Introducing ‘GUIX_’-prefixed environment variables, Maxim Cournoyer, 2022/01/26
- [bug#53447] [PATCH] doc: Unset environment variables considered harmful, Ludovic Courtès, 2022/01/25
- [bug#53447] [PATCH] doc: Unset environment variables considered harmful, Liliana Marie Prikler, 2022/01/25