What build system would be more appropriate for this application

What build system would be more appropriate for this application

[Luis Felipe]

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Hi,

I'm packaging a Python application that doesn't have anything requiring compilation, it just needs copying files to the appropriate directories, so I started with the copy-build-system using an install-plan as follows:

~~~
(build-system copy-build-system)
(arguments
 `(#:install-plan
   `(("help/C/mazo" "share/help/C/")
     ("icons/mazo.svg" "share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/")
     ("mazo" "lib/python3.9/site-packages/")  ; FIXME: Use GUIX_PYTHONPATH
     ("lugare.ulkeva.Mazo.desktop" "share/applications/")
     ("mazo.py" "bin/mazo"))))     ; TODO: Make executable
;; TODO: Run tests.
~~~

This way, the package builds and I'm able to run the application in a guix shell. However, as the comments above indicate, I'd like to

1. Indicate the destination for the "mazo" Python package using GUIX_PYTHONPATH instead of the hardcoded path.
2. Make sure the "bin/mazo" file is executable (the source, "mazo.py", is executable, though).
3. Run tests

Do you think I can achieve these sticking to the copy-build-system, or would it be necessary to resort to meson or similar build systems?

Thanks in advance,


---
Luis Felipe López Acevedo
https://luis-felipe.gitlab.io/

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Re: What build system would be more appropriate for this application

[Luis Felipe]

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Hello Luis Felipe,

On Tuesday, September 6th, 2022 at 22:54, Luis Felipe <luis.felipe.la@protonmail.com> wrote:

> This way, the package builds and I'm able to run the application in a guix shell. However, as the comments above indicate, I'd like to
> 

> 1. Indicate the destination for the "mazo" Python package using GUIX_PYTHONPATH instead of the hardcoded path.
> 2. Make sure the "bin/mazo" file is executable (the source, "mazo.py", is executable, though).
> 3. Run tests
> 

> Do you think I can achieve these sticking to the copy-build-system, or would it be necessary to resort to meson or similar build systems?

I found that using the python-build-system was more appropriate after all, even though the application doesn't use setuputils or anything like that.

To address problem (1), I found that once you use the python-build-system, a "site-packages" procedure becomes available. It returns the appropriate path were to place Python packages. The "site-packages" procedure is not documented in the manual, though. The procedure is defined in the module "(guix build python-build-system)". Grepping for "site-packages" in Guix package definitions shows lots of examples.

To address problem (2), there's Guile's "chmod" procedure. For example: (chmod "myscript" #o555). Plenty of examples in Guix packages too.

As for (3), I could replace the check phase normally, in the same way it is done in many package definitions.

So now I have a package definition I will be sending soon for review :)

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