Re: [outreachy] Further steps

["Björn Höfling" <bjoern.hoefling@bjoernhoefling.de>]

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On Tue, 23 Oct 2018 22:48:30 -0300
Laura Lazzati <laura.lazzati.15@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all!
> 
> I'm really happy that the patch worked :)
> 
> Tomorrow -yet Tuesday here, I live in the past :P - I will close the
> in progress contribution.
> 
> If you don't mind, I have some questions and need some feedback to go
> on.
> 
> - As regards patches, for future ones:
> 
> 1)Why my patch file (the one I sent) does not work applying it with
> git am in my local cloned repo? Do I need to create a new branch or
> something like that?

I think that was the problem. Here I already applied your patch and it
fails (On line 9 already because of the copyright header):

~/guix/wt/kde$ git log -1 | cat; git am ~/0001-gnu-Add-r-aspi.patch 
commit c3ff36b4aa08caa8131b65a14caa03161b71e564
Author: Laura Lazzati <laura.lazzati.15@gmail.com>
Date:   Tue Oct 23 01:59:22 2018 -0300

    gnu: Add r-aspi.
    
    * gnu/packages/cran.scm (r-aspi): New variable.
Applying: gnu: Add r-aspi.
error: patch failed: gnu/packages/cran.scm:9
error: gnu/packages/cran.scm: patch does not apply
Patch failed at 0001 gnu: Add r-aspi.
hint: Use 'git am --show-current-patch' to see the failed patch
When you have resolved this problem, run "git am --continue".
If you prefer to skip this patch, run "git am --skip" instead.
To restore the original branch and stop patching, run "git am --abort".

My workflow usually is to get the lastest master and then to create and
work on a branch for that, for example "wip-r-aspi". Then I can create
another branch "wip-r-aspi2" and go  again from there. Usually I have
too many of those branches and have to clean up from time to tome.


> 2)Where can I read about how to set an appropriate commit log? (not
> running just git log to see how they were generated before)

That's a bit hidden, but documented: In section "7.5 Submitting
Patches" there is a link to the GNU Coding Standards:

https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Change-Logs.html#Change-Logs


> 3) I added an eol with emacs editor, just as you mentioned. Could you
> send me your previous output about the error you were getting about
> that line break, if you still have it?

I haven't looked into that broken patch. Gabor?

> 4) I guess you already answered this one, but Is it ok to send patches
> attached to an email or is it strict to send them with git send-email
> when getting much more involved?

It's OK. I think it comes more convenient when you have a long series
of patches, i.e. you add one package one its 20 dependencies, then you
get a series Patch[1/21]..., see the patch-tracker for examples. But
there are also some examples of people sending patches as attachments.

 
> In the thread of mails, I have already asked you, but I would like to
> know how to continue from now on:
> 
> I would like to go on contributing as much as possible up to November
> 6th (the deadline for applying for Outreachy).
> 1) Is it fine to go on packaging R packages that are not available
> yet, now that I know how to import them, modify them and the whole
> process?
> 2) Do you prefer another tasks to be done?

I would say that R-packages is fine. Gabor do you see any specific
other tasks?

If you have any other favourite packages, you can give them also a try.
It could just get more difficult, with more manual steps, other build
systems, dependencies to be packed first, code to be patched, etc.

 
> - I would like to contribute even after November 6th since I like the
> project really much and the community made me feel really comfortable,
> that's why I kept saying thank you almost all the time.

Of cause. Nice to hear.

> Maybe after the deadline for applying for Outreachy, I could be
> participating - just some ideas that came into my mind:
> 1) reading all the documentation even more carefully, and learning
> even more about guix commands.
> 2) Getting much more involved with all the suggested tools that you
> use - I used vim in the past, for instance, so I'm learning emacs
> commands - and  I am  also learning new git commands, such as the ones
> that I had to use for the patches - or even install another hypervisor
> that is not VirtualBox. I played a little with KVM in the past, for
> example.
> 3) Go on playing with my VM with GuixSD.

If you have guix on top of another distro on your real hardware: You
can just install qemu with guix. And you can try

guix system vm-image my-system-configuration.scm

That produces a QEMU image. Copy it out of your store into your home
directory, then it is read/write. and start it.

> I
> don't know, there are always many things to go on learning, and I will
> not have the pressure by then to have contributions to be done for
> Outreachy . And of course this are some ideas, so that's why I am
> asking you for suggestions, and what do you think about them.


Looking at Outreachy, you could try out all things with generations:

 * guix package
 * guix pull
 * guix system

See how they behave, how you can roll back, delete old generations,
garbage collect.

You can also get more into environment and containers:

guix environment, with "-C" or "--pure", with network "-N" or
"--shared" folders.

There is plenty of magic to be explored in Guix :-)

Björn

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