Re: New CLI syntax for package version

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Ludovic Courtès <address@hidden> writes:

> In <http://bugs.gnu.org/19219>, we came to the conclusion that we need a
> new syntax to denote a specific package version on the command line.
>
> The current syntax is described in the manual (info "(guix) Invoking
> guix package").  Basically, ‘guile-1.8’ refers to version 1.8.x of
> Guile; however, this syntax has proved to be ambiguous for packages
> whose name contains digits.
>
> For the new syntax, the proposals so far are:
>
>   1. slash, <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=19219#25>
>
>      guile:1.8/doc
>      xterm-256-color:320
>      emacs:24.5/out

That’s really “colon”, rather than “slash”.  The slash is used to
separate the output, which reminds me of paths.

>   2. underscore, <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=19219#28>
>
>      emacs_24.5:out

I do not like this one.

>   3. at, <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=19219#31>
>
>      address@hidden
>      address@hidden:doc

I like the address@hidden because it reads as “guile at [version] 1.8”.  A 
colon to
separate the output name from the rest works just as well as a slash
(proposed above); I have no preference here.

~~ Ricardo