building from local (or private) git repository

[Robert Vollmert <rob@vllmrt.net>]

Hi all,

I realize this isn’t generally an aim for guix proper, but I’d like
to be able to build a package from a local git repository (or
optionally from a local tar ball). In my specific case, it’s while
working out the packaging of a project I intend to publish but
haven’t published yet.

What I have working so far uses local-file, as below:

(define-public puzzledb-tools
  (package
    (name "puzzledb-tools")
    (version "20190625-git")
    (source
      (local-file
        "/home/rob/puzzledb/tools"
        #:recursive? #t))
  …

That’s a bit annoying because it includes stale files that happen
to be in the directory, it doesn’t check the hash, etc. Using a
git origin with a local path doesn’t work for reasons I don’t
completely understand — I think it’s because the guix-daemon builds
in a namespace without access to the local filesystem. Perhaps there’s
a way to link the git repository into that namespace?

Any hints appreciated!

Robert