Newbie user question: What do the columns shown by "guix package -I" mean?

Newbie user question: What do the columns shown by "guix package -I" mean?

[Rodrigo Morales]

Inexperienced GUIX user here. I have a question. What's the formal names
for the information presented in the columns shown by `guix package -I'?
(see example of output below)

As I'm learning how to use Guix, I'm taking notes so I want to make sure
that I'm using the correct names in my notes. By intuition, I can say
that the first column is the package name, the second column is the
package version. What about the 3rd and the 4th column?

,----
| guix package -I
`----

,----
| rsync                   3.2.7           out
/gnu/store/72isv0hc8wp65bajhdh8jqvd3m9w0p4x-rsync-3.2.7
| tmux                    3.3a            out
/gnu/store/ynvhs65sh4nq5rd6b1pnlh2h7d94jk1c-tmux-3.3a
`----

Re: Newbie user question: What do the columns shown by "guix package -I" mean?

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

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Hi Rodrigo,

Rodrigo Morales 写道：
> Inexperienced GUIX user here. I have a question. What's the 
> formal names
> for the information presented in the columns shown by `guix 
> package -I'?
> (see example of output below)

I answered this question on IRC as well, so I'll just be lazy & 
paste my answer here:

  <nckx>rdrg109_: That's a good question! The columns are 
  documented in the manual (‘info guix’, ‘Invoking guix package’ — 
  or 
  <https://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/devel/en/html_node/Invoking-guix-package.html#Invoking-guix-package>) 
  under ‘--list-installed’. But it's not documented by the command 
  itself. Doing so now is probably not a good idea, even if we try 
  to be clever and retain backwards compatibility with 
  isatty/stderr/etc.
  — https://logs.guix.gnu.org/guix/2023-02-26.log#205255

Kind regards,

T G-R

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Re: Newbie user question: What do the columns shown by "guix package -I" mean?

[Rodrigo Morales]

Thanks! That's what I was looking for.

A related question: I didn't understand the part "retain backwards
compatibility with isatty/stderr/etc." and I'm curious about that. I
suppose that you mean that "guix package -I" doesn't show the column names
to maintain backward compatibility with isatty, stderr, etc., but it's not
clear to me what problem would arise if column names were shown.

On Sun, Feb 26, 2023 at 3:03 PM Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me@tobias.gr> wrote:

> Hi Rodrigo,
>
> Rodrigo Morales 写道：
> > Inexperienced GUIX user here. I have a question. What's the
> > formal names
> > for the information presented in the columns shown by `guix
> > package -I'?
> > (see example of output below)
>
> I answered this question on IRC as well, so I'll just be lazy &
> paste my answer here:
>
>   <nckx>rdrg109_: That's a good question! The columns are
>   documented in the manual (‘info guix’, ‘Invoking guix package’ —
>   or
>   <
> https://guix.gnu.org/en/manual/devel/en/html_node/Invoking-guix-package.html#Invoking-guix-package>)
>
>   under ‘--list-installed’. But it's not documented by the command
>   itself. Doing so now is probably not a good idea, even if we try
>   to be clever and retain backwards compatibility with
>   isatty/stderr/etc.
>   — https://logs.guix.gnu.org/guix/2023-02-26.log#205255
>
> Kind regards,
>
> T G-R
>

Re: Newbie user question: What do the columns shown by "guix package -I" mean?

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

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Rodrigo Morales 写道：
> Thanks! That's what I was looking for.

I'm glad to hear it!

> A related question: I didn't understand the part "retain 
> backwards compatibility with isatty/stderr/etc."

First of all: I worded this poorly, as is my wont.  I should have 
said ‘by using’ instead of ‘with’.  We're not trying to be 
compatible with isatty or stderr…

Wat I meant was Guix could use the ‘isatty’ Guile procedure to 
show decorate the columns only when the output is a TTY 
(‘interactive’), or print a header line to ‘stderr’ so it won't be 
captured by a pipe.

I think that any such solution would be fragile, do the wrong 
thing in at least one case, and add too much complexity just to 
sometimes add a header.

Why not simply always add a header?

Someone might be using ‘guix package -I’ in a script, and parsing 
its output.  In fact I guarantee you that several people are doing 
so behind closed doors right now!  Adding a header would break 
such scripts.

I, personally, would welcome breaking their scripts—in exchange 
for adding a ‘--format=<something machine-readable>’ option like 
we already do for ‘guix search’.  A real API that's actually 
reliable and supportable.  I think that's fair.

I just think I'd be outvoted and don't feel like starting a fight 
:-)

Kind regards,

T G-R

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Re: Newbie user question: What do the columns shown by "guix package -I" mean?

[Simon Tournier]

Hi,

On Sun, 26 Feb 2023 at 21:31, Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me@tobias.gr> wrote:

> I, personally, would welcome breaking their scripts—in exchange 
> for adding a ‘--format=<something machine-readable>’ option like 
> we already do for ‘guix search’.  A real API that's actually 
> reliable and supportable.  I think that's fair.

Well, that’s something I would like since a very long time.  Well, I
even probably started somewhere an extension as replacement.

By <something machine-readable>, do you mean some placeholders?


> I just think I'd be outvoted and don't feel like starting a fight 
> :-)

That’s why extension. :-)  It would avoid the fight and in the same time
it would help in designing such API allowing experimental breakage.

Well, I would also welcome this --format=<something machine-readable>. :-)

Cheers,
simon