install --with-version?

install --with-version?

[pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)]

Hello!

I wanted to install biber 2.10 but Guix has and never had a package
for it (I think).  So I think of rewriting the existing package.

I see no --with-version option for `guix build`.

I tried

guix environment --ad-hoc -e '(begin (use-modules (guix packages) (gnu packages tex)) (package (inherit biber) (version "2.10")))'

but it still uses the source for the current biber 2.12 instead of
biber 2.10.  I suppose Guix’ record implementation is “hygienic” and
never refers to a changed version.

What to do?

Regards,
Florian

Re: install --with-version?

[ison]

There is a --with-source option. So you could actually specify the download location to the 2.10 version
https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/en/html_node/Package-Transformation-Options.html

Also have you tried building it by specifying "biber@2.10" instead of just "biber"?

Sorry I can't say much about the environment command, other than it looks correct to me.

Re: install --with-version?

[pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)]

On Thu, May 02, 2019 at 06:56:18PM -0600, ison wrote:
> There is a --with-source option. So you could actually specify the download location to the 2.10 version
> https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/en/html_node/Package-Transformation-Options.html
>

I use --with-commit instead of --with-source because biber is defined
using a git-reference like

(define-public biber
  (package
    (name "biber")
    (version "2.12")
    (source (origin
              (method git-fetch)
              (uri (git-reference
                    (url "https://github.com/plk/biber/")
                    (commit (string-append "v" version))))
              (file-name (git-file-name name version))


florian@florianmacbook ~$ guix build --with-commit=biber=v2.10 biber
updating checkout of 'https://github.com/plk/biber/'...
guix build: error: cannot fetch commit v2.10 from https://github.com/plk/biber/: unable to parse OID - contains invalid characters


I looked up the commit ID on GitHub.



florian@florianmacbook ~$ guix build --with-commit=biber=e00ee55ced863d3c2938fe03c2da2d629842b7f1 biber
updating checkout of 'https://github.com/plk/biber/'...
retrieved commit e00ee55ced863d3c2938fe03c2da2d629842b7f1
substitute: updating substitutes from 'https://ci.guix.gnu.org'... 100.0%
[…]

This fails to build because tests fail, but looking at
`guix build -n …` I believe it is basically the right command.  Thank
you!




> Also have you tried building it by specifying "biber@2.10" instead of just "biber"?
> 

florian@florianmacbook ~$ guix environment --ad-hoc biber@2.10 
guix environment: error: biber: package not found for version 2.10

I believe all packages where the @2.10 notation works have multiple
package definitions, one for each version.

Thank you.  --with-commit helps, but it is ugly.  I had hoped there
were better options.  I will file a wishlist bug for
--with-commit=v2.10 and for --with-version=2.10.  (As for biber, I
gave up installing it because tests fail.)

Regards,
Florian