Re: command-not-found

[Ludovic Courtès]

Mathieu Lirzin <address@hidden> skribis:

> address@hidden (Ludovic Courtès) writes:
>
>> Ricardo Wurmus <address@hidden> skribis:
>>
>>> Ben Woodcroft <address@hidden> writes:
>>>
>>>> Seeing as guix is becoming more and more complete, it would be great to 
>>>> have 'command-not-found' [1] or similar available, so that typing in the 
>>>> name of an uninstalled binary begets a suggestion on which package(s) to 
>>>> install, like Ubuntu gives:
>>>>
>>>> $ gitk
>>>> The program 'gitk' is currently not installed. You can install it by 
>>>> typing:
>>>> sudo apt-get install gitk
>>>
>>> For the record: I never liked this feature (and the delay it caused) and
>>> I’m not too keen on having something like this for Guix.
>>
>> +1

Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that we should not have it, rather that
I’m not a big fan of it, FWIW.

> I guess you never liked it because it is has never been helpful to you.
> IMO this feature can be really useful for novice or casual GNU/Linux
> users.  Even if Guix/GuixSD is currently not adapted for this audience,
> it goes in the right direction of empowering not just the seasoned users
> which is part of the social mission of Free Software.

Sure, I can see that it can improve “discoverability”, which is not bad
in itself.

> I don't know the details of implementing such feature, or the supposed
> “delay”.  Maybe there is a valid technical reason for not having it, but
> it would be better to not dismiss this idea on a vague assumption
> (Especially when someone seems to be motivated to do the job).
>
> Could this feature be made optional?

Yes, definitely.

The main issue is that it has to depend on a database provided by a
third party, which is why making it optional is best.  NixOS implements
it by having the equivalent of ‘guix pull’ download an SQLite database
that maps file names to package names (so there’s no significant delay,
nor any privacy breach, but still a trust issue.)

Ludo’.