Re: Packaging existing software for Guix

[raingloom]

For build system, the best is to look at the source.
eg.: if you see a `meson.build` file, it's most likely going to need
meson-build-system, etc. Read through the list of available build
systems in the Guix manual and see which one matches.

For hashes, just use the output of guix hash /dev/null. Guix will
complain that the hashes don't match, showing the expected hash and the
result, just copy the latter into your package.

Do *not* copy the hash from another package, because Guix will blindly
trust it and if for some reason the source of that package is also in
your store, it will use that. You would be building that other package
thinking that you were building the one you were actually working on.
It's not fun to debug that situation.

The "official" way to get the hash is actually to use `guix download`
but I'm always too lazy to figure out how to use that with git repos.
Maybe now it's easier to use it for them. For tarballs and such I do use
it.

On Mon, 4 Apr 2022 21:17:50 +0000
Cássio Tavares <cassio.ufg@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi, and thanks for your patient guidance, Ricardo!
> So . . .
> 
> My progress
> 
> I'm trying to follow your (and @Vagrant
> <mailto:vagrant@debian.org>Cascadian <mailto:vagrant@debian.org>'s)
> suggestions, looking into the ` guix.git/gnu/packages/*` files for
> examples of package definitions, reading the development versions of
> the manual and the cookbook, and also experimenting on my own. With
> that I could find out, for the package I'm trying to port, what
> build-system to use, how to specify the origin and the commit, and
> how to get the hash for that commit. So, some progress, but there are
> still things to debug.
> 
> Your challenge
> 
> >    5. Is there a relatively simple way to port packages from other
> > distros  
> > >    into Guix? Could this be an automated process?  
> >
> > Not from other distros but from upstream repositories; see “guix
> > import”.  
> 
> 
> I'm looking into `guix import`, and made a few experiments with it.
> And ...
> 
> 
> > If you want a fun project you could work on extending “guix
> > import” to import from distro archives.  
> 
> 
> Interesting challenge ─ I'd like to be able to accept it. *But* (a
> *big* *but*) I think I'm hundreds of miles away from being capable of
> doing that ─ just
> look at the picture you're painting:
> 
> Nixpkgs is often not a good template, because more often than not they
> > are cutting corners when it comes to bootstrapping or building from
> > source. 
> 
> Tricky, isn't it? But just for brainstorming, does any other distro
> package its applications in a way that is more descriptive of the
> build process, so that it could be more easily translated into Scheme
> for Guix?
> 
> And, redirecting a bit the problem ─ would it be useful to have an
> importer for NodeJS packages? (I know that most Node packages are
> defined per-project in a package.json file, but there are those that
> can be used as a stand-alone App) And that would be simpler or more
> complex than an importer for a distro (assuming a carefully chosen,
> favorable distro)? Just to be clear, this is just for the sake of
> exploring possibilities ─ I'm not committing to undertaking this
> project.
> 
> Anyway, I was touched by your availability:
> 
> You are welcome to send me issue numbers with your patches and
> > I’ll review them more quickly.
> >  
> 
> Your offer makes me feel very much encouraged to proceed with my
> attempts to package things for Guix, and, in doing so, contribute in
> a more concrete way to the Free Software movement. But...
> 
> Failed attempts (help needed)
> 
> I want to install and use TiddlyMap
> <https://github.com/felixhayashi/TW5-TiddlyMap>, which extends
> TiddlyWiki5 <https://github.com/Jermolene/TiddlyWiki5>, which is then
> its dependency. So to isolate things, I started by writing a package
> definition for the latter, which didn't work. At first debugging was
> easy, because guix informs that some `use-module` expression is
> missing. But then I got stuck. So, maybe you would be willing to take
> a look at how far I've got up to now, and give me some guidance? Here
> it is:
> 
> (define-module (gnu packages tiddlywiki)
>   #:use-module (guix packages)
>   #:use-module (guix git-download)
>   #:use-module (guix build-system node)
>   #:use-module (guix licenses)
> 
>   #:use-module (gnu packages node))
> 
> 
> 
> (define-public tiddlywiki
>   (package
>     (name "tiddlywiki")
>     (version "5.2.2")
>     (source
>       (origin
>         (method git-fetch)
>         (uri (git-reference
>                (url "https://github.com/Jermolene/TiddlyWiki5";)
>                (commit (string-append "v" version))))
>         (file-name (git-file-name name version))
>         (sha256
>           (base32
>             "0ji5c3bqhjaign101fjy13bfhq1i804cxaibs61xmnfync6g1pf7"))))
>     (build-system node-build-system)
>     (home-page "https://tiddlywiki.com";)
>     (synopsis "A non-linear web-browser based personal notebook app")
>     (description "TiddlyWiki is a complete interactive wiki in
>       JavaScript. It can be used as a single HTML file in the browser
>       or as a powerful Node.js application. It is highly
>       customisable: the entire user interface is itself implemented
>       in hackable WikiText.")
>     (license bsd-3)))
> 
> 
> # This last line is so that this file returns a package definition
> 
> tiddlywiki
> 
> 
> Then I tried to install it with:  `guix shell --pure -f
> /path/to/tiddlywiki.scm`, but it failed.
> This is the relevant information (I think) inside the log-file:
> 
> starting phase `set-SOURCE-DATE-EPOCH'
> phase `set-SOURCE-DATE-EPOCH' succeeded after 0.0 seconds
> starting phase `set-paths'
> environment variable `PATH' set to
> `/gnu/store/akwqc82xg9l0g873hh7ia81pdwkf2sm6-node-14.18.3/bin:/gnu/store/g2ajyl8xk9aarxrgjbng2hkj3qm2v0z2-tar-1.34/bin:/gnu/store/iixwcv3k49ks1rf34pjgfzmzyhhgwng3-gzip-1.10/bin:/gnu/store/s3hl12jxz9ybs7nsy7kq7ybzz7qnzmsg-bzip2-1.0.8/bin:/gnu/store/c8isj4jq6knv0icfgr43di6q3nvdzkx7-xz-5.2.5/bin:/gnu/store/4ic6244i3ca4b4rxc2wnrgllsidyishv-file-5.39/bin:/gnu/store/ahmmvw21p11ik80lg1f953y7fd8bqkjm-diffutils-3.8/bin:/gnu/store/z39hnrwds1dgcbpfgj8dnv2cngjb2xbl-patch-2.7.6/bin:/gnu/store/39rsx3nl4c31952jybbjb8d6idr5hx7r-findutils-4.8.0/bin:/gnu/store/690qz3fg334dpwn3pn6k59n4wc943p2b-gawk-5.1.0/bin:/gnu/store/wxgv6i8g0p24q5gcyzd0yr07s8kn9680-sed-4.8/bin:/gnu/store/xjwp2hsd9256icjjybfrmznppjicywf6-grep-3.6/bin:/gnu/store/d251rfgc9nm2clzffzhgiipdvfvzkvwi-coreutils-8.32/bin:/gnu/store/55cbpsi18mahg131nmiya6km5b4mscfa-make-4.3/bin:/gnu/store/4y5m9lb8k3qkb1y9m02sw9w9a6hacd16-bash-minimal-5.1.8/bin:/gnu/store/s2pg5k98fl2g2szg9dykxyd9zl3xihv9-ld-wrapper-0/bin:/gnu/store/rc781v4k0drhaqn90xfwwpspki5x0bvf-binutils-2.37/bin:/gnu/store/069aq2v993kpc41yabp5b6vm4wb9jkhg-gcc-10.3.0/bin:/gnu/store/5h2w4qi9hk1qzzgi1w83220ydslinr4s-glibc-2.33/bin:/gnu/store/5h2w4qi9hk1qzzgi1w83220ydslinr4s-glibc-2.33/sbin'
> environment variable `NODE_PATH' set to
> `/gnu/store/akwqc82xg9l0g873hh7ia81pdwkf2sm6-node-14.18.3/lib/node_modules'
> environment variable `BASH_LOADABLES_PATH' unset
> environment variable `C_INCLUDE_PATH' set to
> `/gnu/store/akwqc82xg9l0g873hh7ia81pdwkf2sm6-node-14.18.3/include:/gnu/store/ri34iqiy08wn7k6czq43g5wl24ghsk97-libuv-1.42.0/include:/gnu/store/s3hl12jxz9ybs7nsy7kq7ybzz7qnzmsg-bzip2-1.0.8/include:/gnu/store/c8isj4jq6knv0icfgr43di6q3nvdzkx7-xz-5.2.5/include:/gnu/store/4ic6244i3ca4b4rxc2wnrgllsidyishv-file-5.39/include:/gnu/store/690qz3fg334dpwn3pn6k59n4wc943p2b-gawk-5.1.0/include:/gnu/store/55cbpsi18mahg131nmiya6km5b4mscfa-make-4.3/include:/gnu/store/rc781v4k0drhaqn90xfwwpspki5x0bvf-binutils-2.37/include:/gnu/store/069aq2v993kpc41yabp5b6vm4wb9jkhg-gcc-10.3.0/include:/gnu/store/5h2w4qi9hk1qzzgi1w83220ydslinr4s-glibc-2.33/include:/gnu/store/6mjww4iz4xdan74d5bbjfh7il8rngfkk-linux-libre-headers-5.10.35/include'
> environment variable `CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH' set to
> `/gnu/store/akwqc82xg9l0g873hh7ia81pdwkf2sm6-node-14.18.3/include:/gnu/store/ri34iqiy08wn7k6czq43g5wl24ghsk97-libuv-1.42.0/include:/gnu/store/s3hl12jxz9ybs7nsy7kq7ybzz7qnzmsg-bzip2-1.0.8/include:/gnu/store/c8isj4jq6knv0icfgr43di6q3nvdzkx7-xz-5.2.5/include:/gnu/store/4ic6244i3ca4b4rxc2wnrgllsidyishv-file-5.39/include:/gnu/store/690qz3fg334dpwn3pn6k59n4wc943p2b-gawk-5.1.0/include:/gnu/store/55cbpsi18mahg131nmiya6km5b4mscfa-make-4.3/include:/gnu/store/rc781v4k0drhaqn90xfwwpspki5x0bvf-binutils-2.37/include:/gnu/store/069aq2v993kpc41yabp5b6vm4wb9jkhg-gcc-10.3.0/include/c++:/gnu/store/069aq2v993kpc41yabp5b6vm4wb9jkhg-gcc-10.3.0/include:/gnu/store/5h2w4qi9hk1qzzgi1w83220ydslinr4s-glibc-2.33/include:/gnu/store/6mjww4iz4xdan74d5bbjfh7il8rngfkk-linux-libre-headers-5.10.35/include'
> environment variable `LIBRARY_PATH' set to
> `/gnu/store/akwqc82xg9l0g873hh7ia81pdwkf2sm6-node-14.18.3/lib:/gnu/store/ri34iqiy08wn7k6czq43g5wl24ghsk97-libuv-1.42.0/lib:/gnu/store/s3hl12jxz9ybs7nsy7kq7ybzz7qnzmsg-bzip2-1.0.8/lib:/gnu/store/c8isj4jq6knv0icfgr43di6q3nvdzkx7-xz-5.2.5/lib:/gnu/store/4ic6244i3ca4b4rxc2wnrgllsidyishv-file-5.39/lib:/gnu/store/690qz3fg334dpwn3pn6k59n4wc943p2b-gawk-5.1.0/lib:/gnu/store/rc781v4k0drhaqn90xfwwpspki5x0bvf-binutils-2.37/lib:/gnu/store/5h2w4qi9hk1qzzgi1w83220ydslinr4s-glibc-2.33/lib:/gnu/store/4jdghmc65q7i7ib89zmvq66l0ghf7jc4-glibc-2.33-static/lib:/gnu/store/fnr1z6xsan0437r0yg48d0y8k32kqxby-glibc-utf8-locales-2.33/lib'
> environment variable `GUIX_LOCPATH' set to
> `/gnu/store/fnr1z6xsan0437r0yg48d0y8k32kqxby-glibc-utf8-locales-2.33/lib/locale'
> phase `set-paths' succeeded after 0.0 seconds
> starting phase `install-locale'
> using 'en_US.utf8' locale for category "LC_ALL"
> phase `install-locale' succeeded after 0.0 seconds
> starting phase `unpack'
>       *... (very long list of unpacked files, with the indication of
> where to)*
> phase `unpack' succeeded after 0.6 seconds
> starting phase `set-home'
> set HOME to "/tmp/guix-build-tiddlywiki-5.2.2.drv-0/npm-home-0"
> phase `set-home' succeeded after 0.0 seconds
> starting phase `bootstrap'
> no 'configure.ac' or anything like that, doing nothing
> phase `bootstrap' succeeded after 0.0 seconds
> starting phase `patch-usr-bin-file'
> phase `patch-usr-bin-file' succeeded after 0.0 seconds
> starting phase `patch-source-shebangs'
>     *... (list of shebangs patches)*
> phase `patch-source-shebangs' succeeded after 0.5 seconds
> starting phase `patch-dependencies'
> phase `patch-dependencies' succeeded after 0.0 seconds
> starting phase `delete-lockfiles'
> phase `delete-lockfiles' succeeded after 0.0 seconds
> starting phase `configure'
> npm ERR! code ENOTCACHED
> npm ERR! request to https://registry.npmjs.org/eslint failed: cache
> mode is 'only-if-cached' but no cached response available.
> 
> npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
> npm ERR!
> /tmp/guix-build-tiddlywiki-5.2.2.drv-0/npm-home-0/.npm/_logs/2022-04-02T17_48_43_558Z-debug.log
> error: in phase 'configure': uncaught exception:
> %exception #<&invoke-error program:
> "/gnu/store/akwqc82xg9l0g873hh7ia81pdwkf2sm6-node-14.18.3/bin/npm"
> arguments: ("--offline" "--ignore-scripts" "install") exit-status: 1
> term-signal: #f stop-signal: #f>
> phase `configure' failed after 0.6 seconds
> command
> "/gnu/store/akwqc82xg9l0g873hh7ia81pdwkf2sm6-node-14.18.3/bin/npm"
> "--offline" "--ignore-scripts" "install" failed with status 1
> 
> I have no idea what this means. Can you deduce anything useful from
> that? What do I need to know to fix this?
> 
> Thanks again,
> Cássio