bug#27222: [PATCH] emacs-build-system install phase doesn't honor directory hierarchy

[Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com>]

Hello,

Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com> writes:

> I Cc-ed Arun, the author of the mentioned change (commit
> d879685176d23c111f4fc665698251b25cdf9124).
>
> [...]
>> From a035d07dfa6cbddccfa0476e2009d19bdf296941 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
>> From: Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com>
>> Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2017 23:43:02 -0700
>> Subject: [PATCH] build-system: emacs: Install elisp files from subdirectories
>>
>> * guix/build/emacs-build-system.scm (install)[include]: Get rid of default
>> value.
>> [exclude]: Likewise.
>> * guix/build/emacs-build-system.scm (emacs-build)[include]: Modify default
>> regexp value so that elisp files get matched (and installed) for any directory
>> depth level.
>> ---
>>  guix/build-system/emacs.scm       | 2 +-
>>  guix/build/emacs-build-system.scm | 5 +----
>>  2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/guix/build-system/emacs.scm b/guix/build-system/emacs.scm
>> index 9a46ecfd2..a97fcedc3 100644
>> --- a/guix/build-system/emacs.scm
>> +++ b/guix/build-system/emacs.scm
>> @@ -83,7 +83,7 @@
>>                        (phases '(@ (guix build emacs-build-system)
>>                                    %standard-phases))
>>                        (outputs '("out"))
>> -                      (include ''("^[^/]*\\.el$" "^[^/]*\\.info$" "^doc/.*\\.info$"))
>> +                      (include ''("\\.el$" "^[^/]*\\.info$" "^doc/.*\\.info$"))
>
> As far as I understand it, it was done for purpose: some packages
> include "uninteresting" (for tests, maintenance, etc.) *.el files in
> subdirs, that's why they are excluded by default.  So probably a better
> solution would be to fix 'ert-runner' package (as it is done in commit
> b1d32ec0e23bfec1dab4c56909228a494b2b0d60, for example).  WDYT?

I acknowledge the intent, but I think the default set of rexgeps
should be more lenient; filtering (inoffensive) files is desirable, but
not at the cost of breaking perfectly valid packages. That's one extra
hurdle the packagers shouldn't have to bear in my opinion.

This change also doesn't prevent excluding subfolders if they are truly
unnecessary (such as tests subfolder), but this should happen due to
explicit regexp in the exclude option, not because *all* subfolders are
excluded.

What do you think?

Maxim