Hi, I'm exploring creating 'package variants' through the 'package transformation' options to guix build [0]
I can't figure out how to build a package variant and give it a different name The most common sort of 'package variant' I can imagine is where the user wants a different (later) version of the source than is available in Guix. An example is Calcurse where Guix's archive has 4.5.1 and upstream has 4.8.1. I can use the --with-source package transformation to build the later version from the upstream source location: $ guix shell --container --nesting --network --development calcurse --no-grafts nss-certs [env]$ guix build calcurse --with-source=https://calcurse.org/files/calcurse-4.8.1.tar.gz --no-substitutes --no-grafts This will create a calcurse package which I can install and it contains calcurse 4.8.1 $ guix package --list-installed calcurse 4.8.1 out /gnu/store/af4nwvbcd8rbix4vcvamblmbf3ns9wsz-calcurse-4.8.1 Maybe it's due to my previous Linux experiences, but the next thing I wanted to do was give the package a different name and/or different version number so I would know it was a local build. In Debian/Ubuntu I would have named the package <software>-futurile and probably given it a different version number so I could control when it was upgraded. I cannot figure out how to do either of these using a package transformation, rather than defining my own package file etc. 1. Can a package be given a different name with a transformation? Manual says --with-source=package=source, I tried: # nope - unknown package calcurse-futurile guix build calcurse-futurile --with-source=calcurse=https://calcurse.org/files/calcurse-4.8.1.tar.gz --no-substitutes --no-grafts # kinda works guix build calcurse --with-source=calcurse-futurile=https://calcurse.org/files/calcurse-4.8.1.tar.gz --no-substitutes --no-grafts The second builds the 'calcurse' package, but it no longer uses the updated source (so I get v4.5.1). I can guess that this is because it has to be a valid package name from the archive and calcurse-futurile isn't one. 2. Can a package be given a different version number with a transformation? I can give a package a different version number, but the field is constrained. There's no way to use characters other than hypen and dot, so you can't use tilde or full colon for example. # this works guix build calcurse --with-source=calcurse@5.4.8.1=https://calcurse.org/files/calcurse-4.8.1.tar.gz --no-substitutes --no-grafts # not allowed colons or tilde in the field so no 'epoch' ala Debian # it breaks the if you have anything other than .xx.xxx guix build calcurse --with-source=calcurse@5:4.8.1 guix build calcurse --with-source=calcurse@4.8.1~futurile I eventually found a way to to change the package name, byt giving a name as part of the version: # this seems to change the package name? guix build calcurse --with-source=calcurse@futurile-0.1=https://calcurse.org/files/calcurse-4.8.1.tar.gz --no-substitutes --no-grafts guix package --list-installed calcurse-futurile 0.1 out /gnu/store/40bprd6gvwf94x42fxdlf739y55p7xip-calcurse-futurile-0.1 This seems to take the first part of the name after the @, up to a hyphen and make it part of the package name. I'm a bit confused about why this works. The manual says --with-source=package@version=source, but this seems to be package@custom_name-version=source - I guess I don't understand the formats of the --with-source field? Maybe I have a misunderstanding of the scope of usage for 'package transformations' in the cli - am I twisting it to do something that it shouldn't be? Thanks, Futurile [0] https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Package-Transformation-Options.html
