[bug#32759] [PATCH 0/8] Seamless integration of inferior packages

["Ludovic Courtès" <ludo@gnu.org>]

Hello Guix!

Here comes icing for the cake: a facility that allows you to mix inferior
packages with “regular” packages in a single profile.

For now you can use it, for instance, by writing a manifest for
‘guix package -m’ along these lines:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(use-modules (guix inferior) (guix channels))

(define channels
  (list (channel
         (name 'guix)
         (url
          "https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git")
         (commit
          #;"4ab6a2f23d43f6c7e4a5a7420db613c5ba5b03b6" ;recent
          "65956ad3526ba09e1f7a40722c96c6ef7c0936fe"))))

(define inferior
  (inferior-for-channels channels))

(packages->manifest
 (list (car (lookup-inferior-packages inferior "guile-json"))
       (specification->package "guile")))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

The example above gives you guile-json 1.0.1 with guile 2.2.4.

Inferior packages are “first class”, meaning that their search paths,
propagated inputs, etc. are honored, just like for regular packages.

Building Guix or even just computing its derivation takes some time
so the last patch, which implements ‘inferior-for-channels’, adds a
cache.  That way, if you frequently use a given inferior, it’s
immediately available.

There’s no documentation yet, mostly because I wanted to get it out
the door and wasn’t sure whether we should provide higher-level
interfaces.

Anyway, that’s it.  Feedback welcome!

Ludo’.

Ludovic Courtès (8):
  inferior: Add 'inferior-package-derivation'.
  inferior: Add 'lookup-inferior-packages'.
  inferior: Add 'inferior-package-inputs' & co.
  inferior: Add 'inferior-package-search-paths' & co.
  inferior: Add 'inferior-package->manifest-entry'.
  profiles: 'packages->manifest' now accepts inferior packages.
  channels: Add 'channel-instances->derivation'.
  inferior: Add 'inferior-for-channels'.

 guix/channels.scm     |  16 +-
 guix/inferior.scm     | 366 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 guix/profiles.scm     |  27 +++-
 tests/guix-package.sh |  15 ++
 tests/inferior.scm    | 123 +++++++++++++-
 5 files changed, 523 insertions(+), 24 deletions(-)

-- 
2.18.0