bug#28298: Downgrades in xfontsel and other packages using app-defaults

bug#28298: Downgrades in xfontsel and other packages using app-defaults

[Alex Kost]

Hello, commit 5dc8dd07b¹ removed a wrapper from xfontsel package.  And
now xfontsel looks "ugly" (not as intended).  You can simply check it:

  $ `guix build xfontsel`/bin/xfontsel

It doesn't look right, and also prints the following message:

  Warning: app-defaults file not properly installed.

Now if you run it like this:

  $ XAPPLRESDIR=/gnu/store/...-xfontsel-1.0.5/lib/X11/app-defaults /gnu/store/...-xfontsel-1.0.5/bin/xfontsel

it looks as it should.

Also the same downgrades probably take effect (I didn't check) with
'xfig' and 'xfd' packages (commits 97fedab1 and 5aae77e4).

So I think we should re-add the mentioned wrappers.

¹ http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/commit/?id=5dc8dd07b0c966842bfb984482df40892dc1c2ae

-- 
Alex

bug#28298: Downgrades in xfontsel and other packages using app-defaults

[Alex Kost]

John Darrington (2017-08-30 15:21 -0400) wrote:

> It looks fine to me.  I don't get that warning.

But did you actually tried what I wrote?:

  $ `guix build xfontsel`/bin/xfontsel

> The XAPPLRESDIR is no longer required because the libxt library has
> been patched.

Oh, I didn't know about this "libxt-guix-search-paths.patch".  I think
now I understand: with this patch, xfontsel and other programs should
work only when they are installed from the usual guix profiles (system
and user ones), right?

In my opinion, this is the wrong approach.  A user may install these
programs in non-standard profiles.  For example, I don't use
"~/.guix-profile" at all; instead I use several other profiles, so there
is no chance for me to have 'xfontsel' work properly.

Also, I think a program should preferably work when it is started
directly from store.

So I strongly believe that using wrappers was the right approach, and we
should return to it.

-- 
Alex

bug#28298: Downgrades in xfontsel and other packages using app-defaults

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi Alex & John!

Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com> skribis:

> John Darrington (2017-08-30 15:21 -0400) wrote:
>
>> It looks fine to me.  I don't get that warning.
>
> But did you actually tried what I wrote?:
>
>   $ `guix build xfontsel`/bin/xfontsel
>
>> The XAPPLRESDIR is no longer required because the libxt library has
>> been patched.
>
> Oh, I didn't know about this "libxt-guix-search-paths.patch".  I think
> now I understand: with this patch, xfontsel and other programs should
> work only when they are installed from the usual guix profiles (system
> and user ones), right?

Or when $GUIX_PROFILE is set, AIUI.

> In my opinion, this is the wrong approach.  A user may install these
> programs in non-standard profiles.  For example, I don't use
> "~/.guix-profile" at all; instead I use several other profiles, so there
> is no chance for me to have 'xfontsel' work properly.
>
> Also, I think a program should preferably work when it is started
> directly from store.

I agree, though that’s not always possible.

> So I strongly believe that using wrappers was the right approach, and we
> should return to it.

As a preamble, I think it’s not just “right” or “wrong”, it’s different
solutions making different tradeoffs.  :-)

IIRC I participated in the review of the libXt patch.  I don’t really
remember the discussion, but I think it would be good rereading it
before making a decision, to make sure we don’t run in circles.

Thanks for looking into it!

Ludo’.