Re: bug#22970: guix edit mutt -- not working

[Jean Louis]

Hello Alex,

I got your mutt file, for my-guix-packages, but now I see I
need to learn Guile commands, I will do this somewhat later
when I have working system. Please help me until then, as
your style to make a modified package is excellent for me.

I guess you forgot the dependency gdbm, where to put it?


 (define-module (my-guix-packages)
   #:use-module (guix packages)
   #:use-module (guix download)
   #:use-module (guix utils)
   #:use-module (gnu packages mail))

 (define-public my-mutt
   (package
     (inherit mutt)
     (name "my-mutt")
     (arguments
      (substitute-keyword-arguments (package-arguments mutt)
        ((#:configure-flags cf)
         `(cons "--enable-hcache" ,cf))))
     (synopsis (string-append (package-synopsis mutt)
                              " (configured with --enable-hcache)"))))

On Fri, Mar 11, 2016 at 12:21:09PM +0100, Jean Louis wrote:
> Hello Alex,
> 
> Thank you much. That looks like a solution that is valuable, and I would
> like to see that in future documentation.
> 
> The info documentation and guix package --help now provide the option to
> read the file and evaluate from file, and I guess that this solution you
> provided is better for future:
> 
> - people can learn Guile, scheme and programming
> - every user can modify the package.scm according to the needs
> 
> I will copy this to guix-devel
> 
> Louis
> 
> On Fri, Mar 11, 2016 at 01:48:39PM +0300, Alex Kost wrote:
> > 
> > > Hello Andreas,
> > >
> > > I have now 2 files in gnu/guix/packages/*.scm, for mutt and postgresql:
> > > and now I get each time on running guix, following:
> > >
> > > guix package: warning: failed to load '(databases)':
> > > ERROR: no code for module (databases)
> > > guix package: warning: failed to load '(mutt)':
> > > ERROR: no code for module (mutt)
> > >
> > > because 2 files are: databases.scm and mutt.scm
> > >
> > > I have already installed mutt, with changes, and it works. On the end of
> > > file there is word "mutt". Similar for PostgreSQL, only it did not yet
> > > compile.
> > >
> > > Now I get a feeling, if I have 20 files to change or adapt to my system,
> > > I will get 20 warnings by each run of guix package manager.
> > >
> > > Somehow it does not feel right.
> > >
> > > It would be more logical to have GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH plus one separate
> > > file where some modified or user related packages are listed, instead of
> > > having the package name on the end of *.scm file.
> > 
> > I agree, using GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH is such a nice way to keep your own
> > packages.  I don't understand why Andreas recommended to use "guix
> > package -f".  I think it is suitable to build some development
> > "guix.scm" file (not related, but see ¹).  But for user packages, I
> > think keeping them in GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH directories is a much better
> > solution.
> > 
> > I also don't recommend to use the same /gnu/packages/*.scm structure, as
> > there may be problems with this.  For example, you copied
> > /gnu/packages/databases.scm to your GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH dir and modified
> > some package in it.  Then you have to follow the changes in this file
> > made in Guix, and update your local databases.scm accordingly all the
> > time.
> > 
> > So if you want to keep all your packages in a single file, you can make
> > "<some-dir>/my-guix-packages.scm", add <some-dir> to GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH,
> > and that's it!  This "my-guix-packages.scm" file will look like this:
> > 
> 
> > (define-module (my-guix-packages)
> >   #:use-module (guix packages)
> >   #:use-module (guix download)
> >   #:use-module (guix utils)
> >   #:use-module (gnu packages mail))
> > 
> > (define-public my-mutt
> >   (package
> >     (inherit mutt)
> >     (name "my-mutt")
> >     (arguments
> >      (substitute-keyword-arguments (package-arguments mutt)
> >        ((#:configure-flags cf)
> >         `(cons "--enable-hcache" ,cf))))
> >     (synopsis (string-append (package-synopsis mutt)
> >                              " (configured with --enable-hcache)"))))
> 
> > 
> > And all guix commands will find packages in this file, for example you
> > can do: "guix package -i my-mutt".  Try it!
> > 
> > ¹ http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2016-03/msg00419.html
> > 
> > -- 
> > Alex
> 
>