Guix, ispell.el and FHS

Guix, ispell.el and FHS

[André A. Gomes]

Hi Guix,

I'm relatively new to the GNU/Linux world, so I apologise for any silliness.

I was looking ispell.el and saw:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(defcustom ispell-look-command
  (cond ((file-exists-p "/bin/look") "/bin/look")
	((file-exists-p "/usr/local/bin/look") "/usr/local/bin/look")
	((file-exists-p "/usr/bin/look") "/usr/bin/look")
	(t "look"))
  "Name of the look command for search processes.
This must be an absolute file name."
  :type 'file
  :group 'ispell)
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

That's the usual path for most GNU/Linus distro (FHS compliant).  But
for Guix System users it lives at /run/current-system/profile/bin/look.

It's obvious I can set the variable properly myself.

My question is: what should be done in such cases?  I can think of the
following:

- Patch the Guix package
- Patch the program itself
- Nothing (apart from setting things myself)

Thank you.


--
André A. Gomes
"Free Thought, Free World"

Re: Guix, ispell.el and FHS

[Ekaitz Zarraga]

Hi Andre

> I'm relatively new to the GNU/Linux world, so I apologise for any silliness.
>
> I was looking ispell.el and saw:
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> (defcustom ispell-look-command
>   (cond ((file-exists-p "/bin/look") "/bin/look")
> 	((file-exists-p "/usr/local/bin/look") "/usr/local/bin/look")
> 	((file-exists-p "/usr/bin/look") "/usr/bin/look")
> 	(t "look"))
>   "Name of the look command for search processes.
> This must be an absolute file name."
>   :type 'file
>   :group 'ispell)
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
> That's the usual path for most GNU/Linus distro (FHS compliant).  But
> for Guix System users it lives at /run/current-system/profile/bin/look.
>
> It's obvious I can set the variable properly myself.
>
> My question is: what should be done in such cases?  I can think of the
> following:
>
> - Patch the Guix package
> - Patch the program itself
> - Nothing (apart from setting things myself)
>
> Thank you.


I'm not a Guix maintainer or anything so get this with a pinch of salt.

First the program itself should be able to find this stuff in a more general
way, not just checking some specific folders.

Second, if the program does not add that change we can patch the guix package
too.

Cheers,

Ekaitz

Re: Guix, ispell.el and FHS

[Liliana Marie Prikler]

Hi,

Am Freitag, den 24.09.2021, 11:51 +0000 schrieb Ekaitz Zarraga:
> Hi Andre
> 
> > I'm relatively new to the GNU/Linux world, so I apologise for any
> > silliness.
> > 
> > I was looking ispell.el and saw:
> > 
> > --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> > (defcustom ispell-look-command
> >   (cond ((file-exists-p "/bin/look") "/bin/look")
> > 	((file-exists-p "/usr/local/bin/look") "/usr/local/bin/look")
> > 	((file-exists-p "/usr/bin/look") "/usr/bin/look")
> > 	(t "look"))
> >   "Name of the look command for search processes.
> > This must be an absolute file name."
> >   :type 'file
> >   :group 'ispell)
> > --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> > 
> > That's the usual path for most GNU/Linus distro (FHS
> > compliant).  But for Guix System users it lives at /run/current-
> > system/profile/bin/look.
> > 
> > It's obvious I can set the variable properly myself.
> > 
> > My question is: what should be done in such cases?  I can think of
> > the following:
> > 
> > - Patch the Guix package
> > - Patch the program itself
> > - Nothing (apart from setting things myself)
> > 
> > Thank you.
> 
> I'm not a Guix maintainer or anything so get this with a pinch of
> salt.
> 
> First the program itself should be able to find this stuff in a more
> general way, not just checking some specific folders.
"Finding things in a more general way" typically means inspecting
search paths or something, which *may work*, but should not be a
requirement for a program to function.  In particular, if this look-
command is important (can't say that it is, but I'm only using ispell
through flyspell, so ymmv).

> Second, if the program does not add that change we can patch the guix
> package too.
In particular, to substitute variables like this we do have both emacs-
substitute-sexps and emacs-substitute-variables and with ~60 uses it
does have some relevance.

Cheers