Re: how to create and test a new service definition

[Catonano]

2017-05-13 22:06 GMT+02:00 Ludovic Courtès <address@hidden>:

Vincent Legoll <address@hidden> skribis:

>> The best way to test your code is to write an ‘operating-system’
>> declaration that uses the new service and to instantiate it in a VM with
>> ‘guix system vm’.
>
> Should that be working properly (out-of-the-box) when you're already in
> a qemu VM (recursive virtualization) ?
>
> I ask because I'm getting:
>
> [...]
> ERROR: qemu failed "qemu-system-x86_64"

What were the lines above this one?  This tool tries to use KVM if it
seems available.  Maybe in your case it “seems” to be available (as in
/dev/kvm exists) but is actually unusable?

>> Once you’ve done that, you can also write an automated test for the new
>> service; see <https://gnu.org/s/guix/news/guixsd-system-tests.html>.
>
> I'm far from there, I have a *really* hard time getting back to guixsd. For
> instance it took me very long time to find back the GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH
> env var. This looks under-documented, or I don't understand how one is to
> work on custom or new packages, etc...

‘GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH’ is documented at
<https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Package-Modules.html#index-GUIX_005fPACKAGE_005fPATH>.

The workflow for defining packages is described at
<https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Defining-Packages.html>,
and that for contributing them is at
<https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Submitting-Patches.html>.

There’s probably room for improvement though.  What changes/additions
would you suggest?

Let me chime in here: I'd suggest to state the workflow or defining services, as the one or deining packages is stated

But I'm not thinking about how to define and use The scheme structures. The examples are enough for that.

I'm thinking about things like how to deal with qemu, if you want to test your services in a vm

Is there any other way to get your feet wet with services ?

George suggested me the trick to link a checked out master branch to .local/guix/profile (or maybe it's the other way around: it's liinking .local/guix/profile to a checked out master branch)

Is anyone using this to work on services ? How, exactly ?

Thanks