Re: [bug#62047] [PATCH 0/2] '--with-input' & co. no longer replace hidden packages

[Greg Hogan <code@greghogan.com>]

On Wed, Mar 8, 2023 at 7:03 AM Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> This change makes things like:
>
>   guix build --with-input=guile=guile-next guix -n --no-grafts
>
> more useful and tractable.
>
> Low-level rewrites are still possible for packages not marked
> as hidden in 'commencement.scm', such as glibc:
>
>   guix build --with-latest=glibc hello -n
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Ludo'.
>
> Ludovic Courtès (2):
>   packages: Use SRFI-71 instead of SRFI-11.
>   packages: 'package-input-rewriting/spec' ignores hidden packages.
>
>  doc/guix.texi      | 21 ++++++++++++---------
>  guix/packages.scm  | 14 ++++++++------
>  tests/packages.scm | 20 +++++++++++++++++++-
>  3 files changed, 39 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)
>
>
> base-commit: 0a37921d851b94aef6900214098dc5bd62b46e26
> --
> 2.39.1

(resending to guix-devel since the bug has been archived)

Ludo',

This has broken, for example, building clang with a newer version of
gcc using package-input-rewriting/spec. What do you think of adding a
hidden? property to enable the old behavior?

Alternatively, why are gcc, binutils, and libc used as build-time
dependencies rather than gcc-toolchain? gcc-toolchain could be
rewritten as a non-hidden package and use of the toolchain would
seemingly better support profiles created with
package->development-manifest.

Greg