Updating a package

Updating a package

[Divan Santana]

Hi Guix,

I'm trying to go about updating a package and submitting a patch.

A good learning process for me.

I managed to update the package, emacs-exwm and to build it successfully
via:

./pre-inst-env guix build emacs-exwm

Few Qs:

Should I do this after updating a package? make check to check all tests
pass? Or rather the CI does that?

Secondly, how do I go about testing this package on my system (laptop
running guix) to see if the updated package actually works?

I've done this in channels.scm

(list
      (channel
       (name 'guix)
       (url "https://gitlab.com/divansantana/guix/")
       (branch "master")))

And then updated to my fork, though not sure if that is the best way.

I suppose it may be better to test these things in a vm via guix vm.

Thanks!

Re: Updating a package

[Danny Milosavljevic]

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Hi Divan,

On Mon, 23 Sep 2019 12:51:42 +0200
Divan Santana <divan@santanas.co.za> wrote:
> ./pre-inst-env guix build emacs-exwm

> Should I do this after updating a package? make check to check all tests
> pass?

In this case not really--since "make check" tests guix the package manager.
You didn't change the package manager, so it wouldn't help.

>Or rather the CI does that?

The CI does that and then it also builds all the other packages, not just
guix the package manager.

> Secondly, how do I go about testing this package on my system (laptop
> running guix) to see if the updated package actually works?

./pre-inst-env guix package -i emacs-exwm

The package is then installed into your profile and you can just use it like
any other packages installed in your profile.

> I've done this in channels.scm
> 
> (list
>       (channel
>        (name 'guix)
>        (url "https://gitlab.com/divansantana/guix/")
>        (branch "master")))
> 
> And then updated to my fork, though not sure if that is the best way.

That would work as well--but sounds like a lot of work.  It is nicer to
do it your way if you want to *keep* your package across updates if
it doesn't make it into the main repository.  Otherwise I don't think
your way gives you any advantage over just installing the package.


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Re: Updating a package

[Divan Santana]

>> ./pre-inst-env guix build emacs-exwm
>
>> Should I do this after updating a package? make check to check all tests
>> pass?
>
> In this case not really--since "make check" tests guix the package manager.
> You didn't change the package manager, so it wouldn't help.
>
>>Or rather the CI does that?
>
> The CI does that and then it also builds all the other packages, not just
> guix the package manager.
>
>> Secondly, how do I go about testing this package on my system (laptop
>> running guix) to see if the updated package actually works?
>
> ./pre-inst-env guix package -i emacs-exwm
>
> The package is then installed into your profile and you can just use it like
> any other packages installed in your profile.
>
>> I've done this in channels.scm
>>
>> (list
>>       (channel
>>        (name 'guix)
>>        (url "https://gitlab.com/divansantana/guix/")
>>        (branch "master")))
>>
>> And then updated to my fork, though not sure if that is the best way.
>
> That would work as well--but sounds like a lot of work.  It is nicer to
> do it your way if you want to *keep* your package across updates if
> it doesn't make it into the main repository.  Otherwise I don't think
> your way gives you any advantage over just installing the package.

Great thanks!