Re: Organizing packages

[Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>]

Jesse Gibbons <jgibbons2357@gmail.com> writes:

> Interesting. So is it worth trying to organize the guix packages or do
> you think it will get too complicated? I'm primarily bothered by the
> number of small files with only one package definition and the
> inconsistency in how packages are organized. I would rather a file have
> multiple package definitions that make sense together than a hundred
> files with only one package definition.

I think it doesn’t matter much, but in some cases having separate
modules even if they only contain one package definition can be really
important because it reduces the “module closure” of certain packages.
Our modules are heavily interdependent and that’s bad as we cannot
easily split up the work that has to be done by “guix pull”.

We shouldn’t have to evaluate all or most modules just to build the
derivations for core packages.  In those cases smaller modules can be
used to cut inter-module references.

(In many other cases, however, that’s just how package definitions were
organized in the early days of Guix.  Moving them around is fine if the
move is a clear improvement.)

--
Ricardo