Viewing the Guix manual in Emacs under Guix

Viewing the Guix manual in Emacs under Guix

[Konrad Hinsen]

Hi everyone,

I have just set up a virtual machine for test-driving Guix as a software 
development and deployment tool in scientific computing. I found the 
Guix SD to be a bit too minimal for my needs, so I started from a 
minimal Debian 8 system and added the Guix package manager. I haven't 
done anything else but installing software until now, but so far it 
looks very good!

However, I would appreciate having the Guix manual more easily 
accessible in my main working environment, which is Emacs. I expected it 
to show up in the info directory, but it doesn't. I have to use the info 
tool from the command line, which is, well, suboptimal.

I tried to fix this myself as an exercise in working with Guix, but it 
seems that Guix profiles do not handle INFOPATH at all. I do not 
consider setting INFOPATH in my .bashrc for now, as that would be 
cheating ;-)

So is there a Guix-y way to add info files from packages to Emacs' info 
directory?

Konrad.

Re: Viewing the Guix manual in Emacs under Guix

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello,

Konrad Hinsen <konrad.hinsen@fastmail.net> skribis:

> I have just set up a virtual machine for test-driving Guix as a
> software development and deployment tool in scientific computing. I
> found the Guix SD to be a bit too minimal for my needs, so I started
> from a minimal Debian 8 system and added the Guix package manager. I
> haven't done anything else but installing software until now, but so
> far it looks very good!

Thanks for your kind words, and welcome!

> So is there a Guix-y way to add info files from packages to Emacs'
> info directory?

When software is installed in a profile, Guix automatically updates the
‘dir’ file in that profile.

Then you really have to set INFOPATH accordingly, because otherwise
there’s no way Emacs (or even the standalone reader, I would expect)
could find them.  On GuixSD, INFOPATH is set to
$HOME/.guix-profile/share/info:/run/current-system/profile/share/info.

If you do so, C-h i will open ~/.guix-profile/share/info/dir and you’ll
be happy.  ;-)

Note that depending on how you installed Guix itself, its manual is
elsewhere.  That location must also be added to INFOPATH.

HTH!

Ludo’.

Viewing the Guix manual in Emacs under Guix

[Vicente Vera]

I am too using Guix solely as a package manager. To open the Guix Info
manual in Emacs i use 'C-u C-h i' and go to the shortest path to find
the manual, which would be '/root/.guix-profile/share/info/'.

Re: Viewing the Guix manual in Emacs under Guix

[Konrad Hinsen]

Ludovic Courtès writes:

 > Thanks for your kind words, and welcome!

Thanks for your welcome!

 > > So is there a Guix-y way to add info files from packages to Emacs'
 > > info directory?
 > 
 > When software is installed in a profile, Guix automatically updates the
 > ‘dir’ file in that profile.
 > 
 > Then you really have to set INFOPATH accordingly,

I hadn't noticed the global 'dir' before. So, yes,

  INFOPATH=$GUIX_PROFILE/share/info

is enough to make everything work. But is there a good reason not
to include this setting in $GUIX_PROFILE/etc/profile ?

 > there’s no way Emacs (or even the standalone reader, I would expect)

The standalone reader does find everything. Even the one from my basic
Debian install finds the Guix manual, although I can't say how.

 > If you do so, C-h i will open ~/.guix-profile/share/info/dir and you’ll
 > be happy.  ;-)

I am! Long live Emacs!  :-)

Thanks,
  Konrad.

Re: Viewing the Guix manual in Emacs under Guix

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Vicente Vera <vicentemvp@gmail.com> writes:

> I am too using Guix solely as a package manager. To open the Guix Info
> manual in Emacs i use 'C-u C-h i' and go to the shortest path to find
> the manual, which would be '/root/.guix-profile/share/info/'.

Are you using Guix as a package manager for root?  Note that one of the
nicest features of Guix is that you do not need to be root to use it.  I
cannot even remember the last time I used Guix with root.

~~ Ricardo

Re: Viewing the Guix manual in Emacs under Guix

[Ludovic Courtès]

Konrad Hinsen <konrad.hinsen@fastmail.net> skribis:

> I hadn't noticed the global 'dir' before. So, yes,
>
>   INFOPATH=$GUIX_PROFILE/share/info
>
> is enough to make everything work. But is there a good reason not
> to include this setting in $GUIX_PROFILE/etc/profile ?

Actually I just found there’s no good reason!

$GUIE_PROFILE/etc/profile is generated based on the environment
variables claimed by the installed packages (for instance Python claims
‘PYTHONPATH’, and so on.)  It turns out that neither Texinfo nor Emacs
claims ‘INFOPATH’.

I’ve fixed that for Emacs (commit 64c983) and will fix it in the next
core update cycle for Texinfo.  So now, when Emacs is in the profile,
etc/profile contain the ‘INFOPATH’ setting.

>  > there’s no way Emacs (or even the standalone reader, I would expect)
>
> The standalone reader does find everything. Even the one from my basic
> Debian install finds the Guix manual, although I can't say how.

Hmm, interesting.

Thanks,
Ludo’.

Re: Viewing the Guix manual in Emacs under Guix

[Vicente Vera]

Nope, not as root. I haven't run 'guix package -i guix' as a regular
user so the links to the Guix info manual aren't in my
".guix-profile/" directory.

2015-10-01 6:29 GMT-03:00 Ricardo Wurmus <ricardo.wurmus@mdc-berlin.de>:
>
> Vicente Vera <vicentemvp@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> I am too using Guix solely as a package manager. To open the Guix Info
>> manual in Emacs i use 'C-u C-h i' and go to the shortest path to find
>> the manual, which would be '/root/.guix-profile/share/info/'.
>
> Are you using Guix as a package manager for root?  Note that one of the
> nicest features of Guix is that you do not need to be root to use it.  I
> cannot even remember the last time I used Guix with root.
>
> ~~ Ricardo