Re: command-not-found

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Mathieu Lirzin <address@hidden> writes:

> 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
>
> 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.

The only time I ever noticed that this feature existed was when I
mistyped a command.  In a case like this I would have preferred
something like this oddly-named tool:

    https://github.com/nvbn/thefuck

When a person is comfortable enough to use the command line on GuixSD,
they probably don’t have a problem figuring out that they need to
install software when the tool they want to use isn’t available.

> I don't know the details of implementing such feature, or the supposed
> “delay”.

The delay was a result of my computer looking up an invalid (because
mistyped) command that I didn’t ask it to search for me in a database.
It can get very annoying when you have to wait a couple of seconds to
get back your prompt, when all you did was mistype the command.

> 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).

I do admit that it may be useful to figure out what files (including
executables) a package provides before installing it, and to be able to
do a reverse search.  We cannot and don’t want to attach these metadata
to the package expressions (because it would be large and ugly); and we
don’t want to have to rely on central substitute servers.

If we also provided a searchable index that could be retrieved when
using “guix publish” and it would not be restricted to hydra, maybe it
could be done.  But as I wrote earlier: I do not know what the best
approach here is.

It certainly was not my intent to seem as if I “dismiss[ed] this idea on
a vague assumption”.

~~ Ricardo