bug#22970: guix edit mutt -- not working

[Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr>]

On Thu, Mar 10, 2016 at 12:22:20AM +0100, Jean Louis wrote:
> And I could not save the file in my home directory, and do:
> guix package -i mutt -f mail.scm

As mentioned on IRC, modify the file mail.scm by adding a line
   mutt
at the end. Then
   guix package -f mail.scm
does "install the package that the code within FILE evaluates to" as
explained by "guix package --help". mail.scm itself does not evaluate
to anything, it just contains a number of variable definitions. By adding
the line, it "returns" the value of the variable mutt, which is your
package definition.

Better yet, use GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH, for instance as follows:
   export GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH=$HOME/guix
Then create the same file layout in that directory as in the source code:
   mkdir -p $HOME/guix/gnu/packages
Copy mail.scm there, modify mutt, then
   guix package -i mutt
will first look for your modified package.

As this is not a bug, it would have been better to post to help-guix@gnu.org;
let us continue the discussion there (if you are not yet subscribed, please
do so), and I am closing this bug.

Andreas