Re: [PATCH] Append effective version to GUILE_LOAD[_COMPILED]_PATH

Re: [PATCH] Append effective version to GUILE_LOAD[_COMPILED]_PATH

[Jan Nieuwenhuizen]

Mikael Djurfeldt writes:

> In python, the version number is higher up in the directory hierarchy,
> which, hypothetically, allows newer versions to have "inventions" in
> the more detailed directory structure:
>
> /usr/lib/python2.6
> /usr/lib/python2.7
> etc
>
> Just a thought.

Python's case is a bit different

 * Python does not look at any environment variable to boot

in contrast, setting GUILE_LOAD_*PATH to the wrong place makes Guile
barf trying to load eval.* or boot-9.*.  Also, guix by default sets
GUILE_LOAD_PATH and GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH, thus "ensuring" that
different guile major versions will fail to boot.

Do we want Guile to look at environment variables to find its core
libraries?

 * Python has magic numbers and skip/recompiles if a .py[oc] does
   not match

This resembles what Ludovic suggested and what I have submitted a patch
for, to skip invalid .go files.

Greetings, Jan

--
Jan Nieuwenhuizen <janneke@gnu.org> | GNU LilyPond http://lilypond.org
Freelance IT http://JoyofSource.com | Avatar® http://AvatarAcademy.nl

Re: [PATCH] Append effective version to GUILE_LOAD[_COMPILED]_PATH

[Ludovic Courtès]

Jan Nieuwenhuizen <janneke@gnu.org> skribis:

> in contrast, setting GUILE_LOAD_*PATH to the wrong place makes Guile
> barf trying to load eval.* or boot-9.*. 

There’s also ‘GUILE_SYSTEM_COMPILED_PATH’ and ‘GUILE_SYSTEM_PATH’.

> Also, guix by default sets GUILE_LOAD_PATH and
> GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH, thus "ensuring" that different guile major
> versions will fail to boot.
>
> Do we want Guile to look at environment variables to find its core
> libraries?
>
>  * Python has magic numbers and skip/recompiles if a .py[oc] does
>    not match
>
> This resembles what Ludovic suggested and what I have submitted a patch
> for, to skip invalid .go files.

I think core libraries are not specifically the problem.  The problem is
that Guile can stumble upon incompatible .go files because
‘GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH’ is honored by both 2.0 and 2.2.

So I think the possible solutions are:

  1. Have 2.2 honor only GUILE_2_2_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH.  Obviously not
     realistic.

  2. Have Guile automatically append “/2.2” (or “/2.0”, etc.) to the
     GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH entries.  Would be nice, but too late.

  3. Change both 2.0 and 2.2 to skip invalid/incompatible .go files.
     Sounds like the only viable solution.

Thoughts?

Ludo’.