From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic =?utf-8?Q?Court=C3=A8s?=)
Subject: Re: Warning on using GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2017 13:33:29 +0100
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References: <20170209133048.GA23419@mail.thebird.nl>
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In-Reply-To: <20170209133048.GA23419@mail.thebird.nl> (Pjotr Prins's message
	of "Thu, 9 Feb 2017 13:30:48 +0000")
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To: Pjotr Prins <pjotr.public12@thebird.nl>
Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org

Hello,

Pjotr Prins <pjotr.public12@thebird.nl> skribis:

> @FOSDEM we concluded that GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH does not necessarily work
> that wel. I added to my guix-notes the following:
>
> +Note that, even though GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH can be a feasible way of
> +adding and maintaining packages, it has two largish downsides: (1) it
> +is removed from the main package tree and therefore not easily shared
> +and integrated and (2) to remain compatible you need to juggle two git
> +trees which may go out of synch.

I=E2=80=99m not sure who =E2=80=9Cwe=E2=80=9D is.  :-)

Anyway I think GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH is just that: an environment variable
that allows users to add more packages to Guix=E2=80=99s search path.  It h=
as
never pretended to do more than this, so in that sense the downsides you
mention are =E2=80=9Cexpected=E2=80=9D.

It does mean that a higher-level mechanism like channels would be more
than helpful, but it doesn=E2=80=99t mean that GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH is =E2=80=
=9Cbroken=E2=80=9D per se.

Ludo=E2=80=99.