extract tools from guix scripts

extract tools from guix scripts

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi Guix,

under “guix/scripts” there are a couple of tools that are really useful,
such as “guix challenge”.  While they are great for the command line,
I’d really like to use them from within Guile.

Using “(guix-challenge)” directly is cumbersome, because I need to
provide an argument list “args”, which is then parsed internally.
Instead, I’d like to be able to say

   (challenge #:urls (list "a" "b")
              #:packages (list foo bar baz))

and have it produce some report values.  Then “guix-challenge” could be
implemented in terms of “challenge”.

The same might be useful for “guix-build” or “guix-environment”.

What do you think?

--
Ricardo

GPG: BCA6 89B6 3655 3801 C3C6  2150 197A 5888 235F ACAC
https://elephly.net

Re: extract tools from guix scripts

[Gábor Boskovits]

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2018-03-08 20:01 GMT+01:00 Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>:

> Hi Guix,
>
> under “guix/scripts” there are a couple of tools that are really useful,
> such as “guix challenge”.  While they are great for the command line,
> I’d really like to use them from within Guile.
>
> Using “(guix-challenge)” directly is cumbersome, because I need to
> provide an argument list “args”, which is then parsed internally.
> Instead, I’d like to be able to say
>
>    (challenge #:urls (list "a" "b")
>               #:packages (list foo bar baz))
>
> and have it produce some report values.  Then “guix-challenge” could be
> implemented in terms of “challenge”.
>
> The same might be useful for “guix-build” or “guix-environment”.
>
>
I agree. This would also enable more flexible cli possibilities, and
would be really useful for scripting. Does this idea fit to the
improve command line tools outreachy idea?


> What do you think?
>
> --
> Ricardo
>
> GPG: BCA6 89B6 3655 3801 C3C6  2150 197A 5888 235F ACAC
> https://elephly.net
>
>
>
>

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Re: extract tools from guix scripts

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Gábor Boskovits <boskovits@gmail.com> writes:

> 2018-03-08 20:01 GMT+01:00 Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>:
>
>> Hi Guix,
>>
>> under “guix/scripts” there are a couple of tools that are really useful,
>> such as “guix challenge”.  While they are great for the command line,
>> I’d really like to use them from within Guile.
>>
>> Using “(guix-challenge)” directly is cumbersome, because I need to
>> provide an argument list “args”, which is then parsed internally.
>> Instead, I’d like to be able to say
>>
>>    (challenge #:urls (list "a" "b")
>>               #:packages (list foo bar baz))
>>
>> and have it produce some report values.  Then “guix-challenge” could be
>> implemented in terms of “challenge”.
>>
>> The same might be useful for “guix-build” or “guix-environment”.
>>
>>
> I agree. This would also enable more flexible cli possibilities, and
> would be really useful for scripting. Does this idea fit to the
> improve command line tools outreachy idea?

The outreachy project is about making the *output* of Guix prettier and
less cluttered, so this would not be part of that project.

-- 
Ricardo

GPG: BCA6 89B6 3655 3801 C3C6  2150 197A 5888 235F ACAC
https://elephly.net

Re: extract tools from guix scripts

[Gábor Boskovits]

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2018-03-08 21:15 GMT+01:00 Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>:

>
> Gábor Boskovits <boskovits@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > 2018-03-08 20:01 GMT+01:00 Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>:
> >
> >> Hi Guix,
> >>
> >> under “guix/scripts” there are a couple of tools that are really useful,
> >> such as “guix challenge”.  While they are great for the command line,
> >> I’d really like to use them from within Guile.
> >>
> >> Using “(guix-challenge)” directly is cumbersome, because I need to
> >> provide an argument list “args”, which is then parsed internally.
> >> Instead, I’d like to be able to say
> >>
> >>    (challenge #:urls (list "a" "b")
> >>               #:packages (list foo bar baz))
> >>
> >> and have it produce some report values.  Then “guix-challenge” could be
> >> implemented in terms of “challenge”.
> >>
> >> The same might be useful for “guix-build” or “guix-environment”.
> >>
> >>
> > I agree. This would also enable more flexible cli possibilities, and
> > would be really useful for scripting. Does this idea fit to the
> > improve command line tools outreachy idea?
>
> The outreachy project is about making the *output* of Guix prettier and
> less cluttered, so this would not be part of that project.
>
>
I see, then I'm willing to help you out with this, if we decide to
implement it.
I would wait for some more opinions thou.


> --
> Ricardo
>
> GPG: BCA6 89B6 3655 3801 C3C6  2150 197A 5888 235F ACAC
> https://elephly.net
>
>
>

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Re: extract tools from guix scripts

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello,

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> skribis:

> under “guix/scripts” there are a couple of tools that are really useful,
> such as “guix challenge”.  While they are great for the command line,
> I’d really like to use them from within Guile.
>
> Using “(guix-challenge)” directly is cumbersome, because I need to
> provide an argument list “args”, which is then parsed internally.
> Instead, I’d like to be able to say
>
>    (challenge #:urls (list "a" "b")
>               #:packages (list foo bar baz))
>
> and have it produce some report values.  Then “guix-challenge” could be
> implemented in terms of “challenge”.

I think ‘compare-contents’ in (guix scripts challenge) is close to what
you want, no?  See tests/challenge.scm for example usage.

The short-lived reproducibility.html generator also used it:

  http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix/guix-artwork.git/tree/website/www/packages.scm?id=ae2d0209cc44e25a45cab0abcc9d85172fd48dca#n545

> The same might be useful for “guix-build” or “guix-environment”.

I agree with this sentiment!

Then it’s a matter of defining an appropriate API.  For instance, all
‘guix-build’ does is UI stuff around (guix store) and (guix packages).
There’s a higher-level ‘build-package’ procedure in (guix scripts).

IMO a good interface can’t just be a Schemey variant of the CLI, because
often the CLI papers over a number of details that a good API should
expose.

Ludo’.