Re: guix-shell?

[David Thompson]

Ludovic Courtès <address@hidden> writes:

> David Thompson <address@hidden> skribis:
>
>> I will implement 'guix shell' if I can get your opinion on the best
>> approach to take.  Would you tweak guix/scripts/build.scm to handle
>> the special case or export the necessary procedures and create a
>> guix/scripts/shell.scm module?
>
> The problem with a command that spawns a shell IMO is that it does not
> compose well: you get a new shell (which shell program is actually
> run?), and you can influence a running shell, or use it in a script,
> etc.
>
> So instead I would imagine a command like:
>
>   guix environment emacs
>
> which would build the dependencies of Emacs, and then output the search
> path as per ‘guix package --search-paths’, so that one can just source
> it and be done.
>
> In addition, one could do things like:
>
>   guix environment -l foo.scm

That sounds pretty good to me.  I don't have the process clear in my
head yet, though.  I need to read how our build script works more.

I think it would be nice to have a default file that guix environment
searches for if none is specified.  Tools like Ruby's bundler
automatically use a file called 'Gemfile'.  Perhaps guix environment
could look for an 'environment.scm' file by default?

-- 
David Thompson
Web Developer - Free Software Foundation - http://fsf.org
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