From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Ricardo Wurmus Subject: Re: distinguishing between applications and libraries Date: Mon, 01 Jul 2019 23:48:53 +0200 Message-ID: <87lfxhv322.fsf@elephly.net> References: <0E655A03-834C-4219-8956-D69CF4C6A444@vllmrt.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:52165) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.86_2) (envelope-from ) id 1hi4Ao-0005ZX-3m for guix-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 01 Jul 2019 17:49:21 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1hi4Ad-0000zv-MU for guix-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 01 Jul 2019 17:49:12 -0400 Received: from sender4-of-o53.zoho.com ([136.143.188.53]:21377) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1hi4AV-0000rj-Ld for guix-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 01 Jul 2019 17:49:03 -0400 In-reply-to: <0E655A03-834C-4219-8956-D69CF4C6A444@vllmrt.net> List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Guix-devel" To: Robert Vollmert Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org Hi Robert, > Has it been considered to track applications and libraries > separately? Along the lines of: > > - package definitions could have a `type` field, or a `library` > flag or similar This dichotomy falls apart with many bioinformatics packages that provide both libraries and executables, where neither of the two types is prioritized. > - `guix search` would ignore library packages by default I think it=E2=80=99s valid for users to want to install libraries. For Pyt= hon, for example, installing modules that don=E2=80=99t provide any executables appears to be the norm. -- Ricardo