Re: Reverse the naming of store items?

[Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org>]

Hi Jacob,

Jacob Hrbek <kreyren@rixotstudio.cz> writes:

> Currently we use
> /gnu/store/zzz16sfz4jxsdvf8j29rkd46psrc6dpj-emacs-ert-runner-0.8.0.drv
> for store items which are painful to navigate from CLI using bash's
> auto-completion as the first letter doesn't correspond to the package
> name which usually requires doing `ls /gnu/store | grep emacs` and
> then copy pasting the path to work with the store items.

As Kaelyn pointed out, there will usually be more than one store item
for the same package, so you'll need to know at least the first few
characters of the hash.  Once you have that, then you will also have the
entire store item name on your screen, at which point you can copy+paste
it into your shell session.

Suppose you don't want to copy+paste it.  If you know the first few hash
characters, then you can simply type "/gnu/store/<first hash chars><TAB>"
and that will usually be sufficient.  For example, suppose I wish to
navigate to the store item of the emacs that I'm currently using to type
this message, which is:

  /gnu/store/9a31k78k56ky1da7n7knq3ys9hriw5sj-emacs-next-pgtk-28.0.50-1.ae18c8e

On my current system, it suffices to type:

  /gnu/store/9a31 <TAB>.

If your proposal were adopted, then I would instead need to type:

  /gnu/store/emacs-ne <TAB> 9 <TAB>

That's 6 more keypresses than is required under the current approach.

      Regards,
        Mark

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