Hello, Thank you for getting back to me.
> Also, the 'python-minimal' offered by `guix environment python- > minimal` > is likely the one that lives on the master branch, deployed by `guix > pull`, unless you symlinked your git checkout to > '~/.config/guix/latest'. > I remembered --pure, but I keep forgetting the .config/guix/latest symlink gets updated fairly frequently. > Could you try something like this, having checked out the branch > where > you are attempting this upgrade: > > `~/src/guix/pre-inst-env guix environment --pure python-minimal` > > I would suggest '--container' but you'd have to make some changes to > your system if you are on Debian. I switched to trying to do this on a GuixSD VM. With pre-inst-env guix environment --pure python-minimal I managed to get an environment, and figured out some of the config flags from a run of guix build python-minimal Whats output in the build log looks like: (environment variables setting path to bash that I didn't copy) --prefix=/gnu/store/wj1b0simlx4s9vdksc297043cg7ah9gf-python-minimal-3.5.1 --enable-shared LDFLAGS=-Wl,-rpath=/gnu/store/wj1b0simlx4s9vdksc297043cg7ah9gf-python-minimal-3.5.1/lib --without-system-ffi Does guix sort the config flags somehow? I wasn't sure if the LDFLAGS could be defined between --arguments. I had a list of several things I tried that didn't work but then I asked why is python-minimal using --without-system-ffi? It occurred to me to try building it with libffi and --with-system-ffi, and that wonderfully did build. I hope this stream of consciousness made some sense. If --without- system-ffi isn't actually important I can clean up the patch and submit it after I've gotten some sleep. (Mostly my previous patch plus commented out the current python-minimal (arguments...) and adding ("libffi" ,libffi) to the inputs) Diane