Re: GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH doesn't have priority over official guix packages

[Paul Jewell <paul@teulu.org>]

Just a small thought:

On 16/10/2021 22:03, Phil Beadling wrote:
> As far as I can see, Guix will always prefer the highest version number
> irrspective of which channel is sources it from.
>> However, if there is a package with the same name in both my channel and
>> in the official guix channel, 'guix install' will install from the
>> official guix channel instead of my channel. Is this supposed to happen?
>> I thought that GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH is supposed to have priority over
>> the official guix channel?
>>
>> I am currently working around this problem by specifying the version
>> number when installing. For example:
>>
>> $ GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH=. guix install 'mypackage@1.2.3'


This is a similar situation you see in the gentoo world with an overlay 
(similar to non core channel) containing an ebuild (package definition) 
for a package which also exists in the main repo. The highest version 
number will be selected by default, regardless of the ebuild location. 
The solution there is to allow the overlay source to be included in the 
package definition:

emerge -av my-package::my-overlay

[emerge is the command which installs packages]

It is also allowed to pin a particular version of the package, but if 
the package exists in both the overlay and the main repo, I am not sure 
what will happen.

Perhaps in the future a similar method could be used to pin a particular 
channel for a package? It is quite useful to ensure the latest package 
continues to be installed without having to change the version number in 
the package list.

--
Paul