Creating new package for Guix - newbie's question

Creating new package for Guix - newbie's question

[Rodion Goritskov]

Hello everybody!

I am GuixSD and Guix newcomer. Installation succeeded, but suddenly I 
found that one of my favorite packages - compton[1], is missing in 
repos.

OK, that is not really a problem - I tried to create this package 
myself. So, I copied template "hello.scm" from documentation, modified 
it according to compton's build process.

Question is - how I can test created package build process?

I tried executing guix package -f <my package file>. It doesn't output 
any errors, but package is not installed or built.

What is the process of testing created package file?

Thank you in advance.

Proud Guix user,
Rodion Goritskov

P.S. Guix and GuixSD are great pieces of software!

[1] - https://github.com/chjj/compton

Re: Creating new package for Guix - newbie's question

[Matthew Jordan]

Hi Rodion,

Welcome to Guix!

Here is the fast way;

$ mkdir -p ${HOME}/tmp/packages/gnu/packages
$ export GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH="${HOME}/tmp/packages"

$ mv <package-file>.scm ${HOME}/tmp/packages/gnu/packages
$ guix build <package-name>

If you intend to contribute the package, keep reading.

> OK, that is not really a problem - I tried to create this package 
> myself. So, I copied template "hello.scm" from documentation, modified 
> it according to compton's build process.

See the following sections/chapters in the Guile Reference Manual;

5 Programming Interface (Page 41)
https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/guix.html#Programming-Interface

6.1 Invoking guix build (Page 75)
https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/guix.html#Invoking-guix-build

8 Contributing (Page 170))
https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/guix.html#Contributing

> Question is - how I can test created package build process?
Here is what I do atm for developing packages.

$ guix environment guix --ad-hoc help2man git strace
$ eval `guix environment guix --ad-hoc --search-paths help2man git
strace`

$ unset GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH
$ export GUIX_BUILD_OPTIONS="--keep-failed --verbosity=3"
$ export BUILD_LOG=${HOME}/tmp/logs/pre-guix-build.log
$ mkdir -p $(dirname ${BUILD_LOG})

Inital setup
$ git clone --recurse git://git.savannah.gnu.org/guix.git

Update
$ git pull --recurse-submodules

Build
$ ./bootstrap
$ ./configure --localstate=/var
$ make
$ make check

Runs in the foreground
optional unless editing damon code
$ sudo ./pre-inst-env guix-daemon --build-users-group=guixbuild

Edit/add code under gnu/packages directory.

$ export GUIX_BUILD_OPTIONS="--keep-failed --verbosity=3"
$ ./pre-inst-env guix build hello &>/dev/stdout &>${BUILD_LOG}
$ ./pre-inst-env guix lint hello

-- 
Matthew Jordan
Sent with my mu4e

Re: Creating new package for Guix - newbie's question

[Leo Famulari]

On Sun, Jun 12, 2016 at 05:24:37PM -0400, Matthew Jordan wrote:
> Here is what I do atm for developing packages.

That is a very complete list of things to do :)

> Build
> $ ./bootstrap
> $ ./configure --localstate=/var

That should be --localstatedir=/var

> $ make
> $ make check

It should be enough to bootstrap, configure, and make check from the Git
checkout, and then this...

> $ ./pre-inst-env guix build hello &>/dev/stdout &>${BUILD_LOG}

... should be enough to get you started. Although, you don't need to
create your own build log. It is made available with `guix build
--log-file`.  Making your own log is useful if you want to capture the
log of a failing build.

If you don't have all the dependencies you need to `make` Guix, do `guix
environment guix` to add the dependencies of Guix to your environment.

> $ ./pre-inst-env guix lint hello

Please do this before sending the patch to guix-devel ;)

Re: Creating new package for Guix - newbie's question

[d4n1]

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