Red Nose Hacker

english

Guix logo

Summary :

So far, I've shown you how to manage your software packages manually, in profiles, with the guix package command (and its aliases). Each of these transactions creates a new generation of a profile with the changes made.

Now, I'll show you how to generate profiles in a row with what are called manifests!

Read more...

Guix logo

Summary :

Before going further in this serie on Guix, I must explain something to you!

When you invoke the command guix package, you perform what is called a transaction. This is an atomic action. Either it succeeds or nothing happens. There's no “the system crashed in the middle so we're in a weird state”. I find that very reassuring!

Read more...

Guile Logo

I got into the habit of doing about 30 minutes of Code Kata every morning. I practice these Kata following the test-driven development (TDD) approach.

Guile distribution includes the SRFI-64 module: a unit testing framework. In this article, I explain how to use it and how to configure it in order to practice code kata.

Lire la suite...

Guile Logo

The Guile Hacker Notebook follows the style of Test Driven Learning to illustrate features of the Guile programming language. Asides on tools and techniques are provided to help the hacker become more productive.

In this chapter, the hacker manipulates booleans. He will take the opportunity to document his source code with what are called docstrings.

The chapter is accessible at the following address: https://jeko.frama.io/fr/booleans.html .

Let's take advantage of this article to play a bit with all this!

Lire la suite...

Guile Logo

I'm going to introduce you to Hall, a tool to assist you in the development and distribution of Guile programs. I won't cover all of Hall's features. Just something to give you a try ;–)

Lire la suite...

Guix logo

Summary

In addition to your default profile ~/.guix-profile, you can create as many profiles as you want (if you find it useful). For example, I have a profile dedicated to programming with Guile, in which I have installed the latest version of the language, extensions to Emacs, and some libraries I use frequently.

Lire la suite...

Guix logo

Definitions

Package store

Guix is a software package manager. It therefore manages a package store, located in /gnu/store (by default). This is where all software packages that are added to the system via Guix are stored.

The package store is common to all users' profiles.

Lire la suite...

Logo Guix

This serie of blog posts is an invitation to see how one can learn how to package software for Guix without prior knowledge about Guix or even software packaging. I show you what resources I need and how I use them. My method is driven by doing. The commands execution rhythms my iterations and its return guides the code to produce and the use of external resources (documentation, source code, community).

At the end of this serie, I would have packaged a simple piece of free software : ac-geiser, an extension of Emacs that brings a hint of self-completion to Geiser when I hack with the Guile language.

History :

In the Guix repository you've cloned in the first article of this serie, do the following :

$ git pull
$ guix environment --pure guix
[dev]$ ./bootstrap && ./configure --localstatedir=/var && make

You now have an up-to-date stuff.

I retrieve the last commands executed (the first one to create a package definition, the second to build the package according to the definition) :

$ echo '(use-modules (guix packages) (guix build-system emacs) (guix licenses) (guix git-download)) (package (name "") (version "") (source (origin (uri (git-reference (url "") (commit ""))) (method git-fetch) sha256)) (build-system emacs-build-system) (synopsis "") (description "") (license bsd-3) (home-page ""))' > /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
$ ./pre-inst-env guix build -f /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
/tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm:1:112: error: sha256: invalid field specifier

I have no idea how to specify the sha256 field. So I request documentation on this subject. Unfortunately, I can't find much information on how to use sha256, or how to define a bytevector in base 32 format. So I looked at the hello package example in the documentation to unlock me (it's the wildcard of the session). I can now change my definition accordingly.

$ echo '(use-modules (guix packages) (guix build-system emacs) (guix licenses) (guix git-download)) (package (name "") (version "") (source (origin (uri (git-reference (url "") (commit ""))) (method git-fetch) (sha256 (base32 "")))) (build-system emacs-build-system) (synopsis "") (description "") (license bsd-3) (home-page ""))' > /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
$ guix build -f /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
guix build: error: derivation `/gnu/store/diif4n2lx6s5g9qxrvpc9pshfyypwa6k-git-checkout.drv' has incorrect output `/gnu/store/7ygy97wz9d1zcbz3k2kg1ga9g389bd7b-git-checkout', should be `/gnu/store/0fd9p27axy1jdw7fv29fa8i3sa0vajbl-git-checkout'

This time, I don't use the pre-inst-env script as it seems to be broken for me (see my thread on the mailing list). Will see if I can fix it later... Anyway, here the Guix return message tells me Guix made a step forward to the build process. But it is not very explicit about what is missing or wrong. In the mailing list thread previously mentionned, Julien Lepiller said I have to specifiy a non-empty hash for the package (the base32 field). So let's specify it ! First, compute the expected hash with the help of the documentation !

$ cd /tmp
$ git clone https://github.com/xiaohanyu/ac-geiser.git
Clonage dans 'ac-geiser'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 20, done.
remote: Total 20 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 20
Dépaquetage des objets: 100% (20/20), 148.08 Kio | 746.00 Kio/s, fait.
$ cd ac-geiser/
$ guix hash -rx .
0h2kakb4f5hgzf5l2kpqngalcmc4402lkg1pvs88c8z4rqp2vfvz

Now it is time to complete the package definition. I take this opportunity to fill all the fields I can (I want to create the package for ac-geiser).

$ echo \
'(use-modules 
   (guix packages)
   (guix build-system emacs)
   (guix licenses) 
   (guix git-download)) 
 (package 
   (name "emacs-ac-geiser") 
   (version "0.1") 
   (source 
     (origin 
       (uri (git-reference 
              (url "https://github.com/xiaohanyu/ac-geiser.git") 
              (commit "502d18a8a0bd4b5fdd495a99299ba2a632c5cd9a"))) 
       (method git-fetch) 
       (sha256 (base32 "0h2kakb4f5hgzf5l2kpqngalcmc4402lkg1pvs88c8z4rqp2vfvz"))))
   (build-system emacs-build-system) 
   (synopsis "Auto-complete backend for geiser")
   (description "Provides one auto-complete source for Scheme projects using geiser.")
   (license bsd-3) 
   (home-page "https://github.com/xiaohanyu/ac-geiser"))'\
> /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
$ guix build -f /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
[...]

With this, guix build is finally working ! The traces on console are too long to be fully copied here (so I created a Gist). It finishes with an error reported in a log :

[...]
Cannot open load file: No such file or directory, geiser
[...]

That make sense considering ac-geiser requires both geiser and auto-complete but I never specified it. In the documentation I found there are fields dedicated to this purpose. One fit exactly : propagated-inputs. Both geiser and auto-complete have their own Guix package. The commandsguix show emacs-geiser and guix show emacs-auto-complete tell me their are defined in the file gnu/packages/emacs-xyz.scm. So I edit my definition (not so dummy anymore) to bring them into it. I store it under /tmp/emacs-ac-geiser.scm :

(use-modules
 (guix packages)
 (guix build-system emacs)
 (guix licenses)
 (guix git-download)
 (gnu packages emacs-xyz))

(package
 (name "emacs-ac-geiser")
 (version "0.1")
 (source
  (origin
   (uri (git-reference
	 (url "https://github.com/xiaohanyu/ac-geiser.git")
	 (commit "502d18a8a0bd4b5fdd495a99299ba2a632c5cd9a")))
   (method git-fetch)
   (sha256 (base32 "0h2kakb4f5hgzf5l2kpqngalcmc4402lkg1pvs88c8z4rqp2vfvz"))))
 (build-system emacs-build-system)
 (propagated-inputs `(("geiser" ,emacs-geiser)
		      ("auto-complete" ,emacs-auto-complete)))
 (synopsis "Auto-complete backend for geiser")
 (description "Provides one auto-complete source for Scheme projects using geiser.")
 (license bsd-3)
 (home-page "https://github.com/xiaohanyu/ac-geiser"))

Et voilà !

$ guix build -f /tmp/emacs-ac-geiser.scm
[...]
construction de /gnu/store/2yz7ax3h5qwjg0i24kb65p5l8r8n5vh6-emacs-ac-geiser-0.1.drv réussie
/gnu/store/hp2jli29jchkdi50klzydrxqk72r3n2w-emacs-ac-geiser-0.1

Guix successfuly build the package according to my definition ! Yay \o/

It is a good place to stop. Next one will be for submitting the package to the Guix Project ! My first contribution ?!

Thank you so much for reading this article !

Don't hesitate to give me your opinion, leave a comment, or ask a question via :E-mail: jeremy AT korwin-zmijowski DOT frMastodon: @jeko@framapiaf.orgPeertube: @jeko@video.tedomum.netTwitter: @JeremyKorwin

Also, please subscribe so you don't miss the next ones :blog via Mastodon @jeko@write.as et RSSscreencast via Peertube @jeko@video.tedomum.net et RSS

And most importantly, share the blog and tell your friends it's the best blog in the history of Free Software! No shit!

#guix #package #english

Logo Guix

This serie of blog posts is an invitation to see how one can learn how to package software for Guix without prior knowledge about Guix or even software packaging. I show you what resources I need and how I use them. My method is driven by doing. The commands execution rhythms my iterations and its return guides the code to produce and the use of external resources (documentation, source code, community).

At the end of this serie, I would have packaged a simple piece of free software : ac-geiser, an extension of Emacs that brings a hint of self-completion to Geiser when I hack with the Guile language.

History :

In the Guix repository you've cloned in the first article of this serie, do the following :

$ git pull
$ guix environment --pure guix
[dev]$ ./bootstrap && ./configure --localstatedir=/var && make
$ exit

You now have an up-to-date stuff.

I retrieve the last commands executed (the first one to create a package definition, the second to build the package according to the definition):

$ echo '(use-modules (guix packages) (guix build-system emacs) (guix licenses)) (package (name "") (version "") (source origin) (build-system emacs-build-system) (synopsis "") (description "") (license bsd-3) (home-page ""))' > /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
$ ./pre-inst-env guix build -f /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
guix build: error: origin: source expression failed to match any pattern

Guix tells the following portion of the definition is problematic (source origin). I look at what the documentation explains about it... Effectively, origin is an object and not a symbol (as I specified it). I modify the definition to match with it :

$ echo '(use-modules (guix packages) (guix build-system emacs) (guix licenses)) (package (name "") (version "") (source (origin)) (build-system emacs-build-system) (synopsis "") (description "") (license bsd-3) (home-page ""))' > /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
$ ./pre-inst-env guix build -f /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
/tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm:1:112: error: (origin): missing field initializers (uri method sha256)

Guix tells me that the origin object consists of, at least, three required fields: (uri method sha256). I'm going to pass them to origin and see what Guix tells me :

$ echo '(use-modules (guix packages) (guix build-system emacs) (guix licenses)) (package (name "") (version "") (source (origin uri method sha256)) (build-system emacs-build-system) (synopsis "") (description "") (license bsd-3) (home-page ""))' > /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
$ ./pre-inst-env guix build -f /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
/tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm:1:112: error: uri: invalid field specifier

uri is not specified. I can see in the documentation this field is a string. Let's try this :

$ echo '(use-modules (guix packages) (guix build-system emacs) (guix licenses)) (package (name "") (version "") (source (origin (uri "") method sha256)) (build-system emacs-build-system) (synopsis "") (description "") (license bsd-3) (home-page ""))' > /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
$ ./pre-inst-env guix build -f /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
/tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm:1:112: error: method: invalid field specifier

Bingo, now I can move on to the second field: method. The documetation tells me that this is a procedure that will retrieve the sources of the software either from a URL or from a git repository. In my case, it will be a git repository. What the documentation also tells me is that for a git repository, uri must be a git-reference object and not a string as I specified in the previous step. I'll take it back before moving on to method.

$ echo '(use-modules (guix packages) (guix build-system emacs) (guix licenses)) (package (name "") (version "") (source (origin (uri (git-reference (url "") (commit ""))) method sha256)) (build-system emacs-build-system) (synopsis "") (description "") (license bsd-3) (home-page ""))' > /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
$ ./pre-inst-env guix build -f /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
/tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm:1:112: error: method: invalid field specifier

The construction of my uri field seems to suit Guix. Now, I will take care of the method field. The documentation tells me that method, in order to get the source of a program via git must be set to git-fetch from (guix git-download) module :

$ echo '(use-modules (guix packages) (guix build-system emacs) (guix licenses) (guix git-download)) (package (name "") (version "") (source (origin (uri (git-reference (url "") (commit ""))) (method git-fetch) sha256)) (build-system emacs-build-system) (synopsis "") (description "") (license bsd-3) (home-page ""))' > /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
$ ./pre-inst-env guix build -f /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
/tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm:1:112: error: sha256: invalid field specifier

Cool, the method field specification is OK for Guix.

But I'll stop here for today. I'll look into it in a future article. Here is the definition at this point:

(use-modules
 (guix packages)
 (guix build-system emacs)
 (guix licenses)
 (guix git-download))

(package
 (name "")
 (version "")
 (source
  (origin
   (uri (git-reference (url "") (commit "")))
   (method git-fetch) sha256))
 (build-system emacs-build-system)
 (synopsis "")
 (description "")
 (license bsd-3)
 (home-page ""))

Thank you so much for reading this article !

Don't hesitate to give me your opinion, leave a comment, or ask a question via :E-mail: jeremy AT korwin-zmijowski DOT frMastodon: @jeko@framapiaf.orgPeertube: @jeko@video.tedomum.netTwitter: @JeremyKorwin

Also, please subscribe so you don't miss the next ones :blog via Mastodon @jeko@write.as et RSSscreencast via Peertube @jeko@video.tedomum.net et RSS

And most importantly, share the blog and tell your friends it's the best blog in the history of Free Software! No shit!

#guix #package #english

Logo Guix

This serie of blog posts is an invitation to see how one can learn how to package software for Guix without prior knowledge about Guix or even software packaging. I show you what resources I need and how I use them. My method is driven by doing. The commands execution rhythms my iterations and its return guides the code to produce and the use of external resources (documentation, source code, community).

At the end of this serie, I would have packaged a simple piece of free software : ac-geiser, an extension of Emacs that brings a hint of self-completion to Geiser when I hack with the Guile language.

History :

In the Guix repository you've cloned in the first article of this serie, do the following :

$ git pull
$ guix environment --pure guix
[dev]$ ./bootstrap && ./configure --localstatedir=/var && make

You now have an up-to-date stuff.

I retrieve the last commands executed (the first one to create a package definition, the second to build the package according to the definition):

$ echo '(use-modules (guix packages) (guix build-system emacs)) (package (name "") (version "") (source origin) (build-system emacs-build-system) (synopsis "") (description "") license home-page)' > /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
$ ./pre-inst-env guix build -f /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
/tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm:1:56: error: license: invalid field specifier

So I stopped at the license field.

In the documentation, I find little information about how to specify the license field. I could see in the example given for the hello software the value gpl3+, but, for the moment, I'm looking for something closer to a null value, or the value that directly suits my case. I could try to tinker around (e.g. try bsd3) until I find the right value, but that wouldn't be scientific enough for my taste. So I decide to look in the source code. The documentation states that the license field must be valued (or specified) with the values from the (guix licenses) module. A little tour in the Guix git repository allows me to find the source file of this module, logically: guix/licenses.scm.

In the license module file, I see that the module exports the bsd-3 symbol (so it wasn't bsd3 haha), which would fit my package. So I'm going to modify the definition I'm building to import the (guix licenses) module so that I can specify the license field with the appropriate symbol :

$ echo '(use-modules (guix packages) (guix build-system emacs) (guix licenses)) (package (name "") (version "") (source origin) (build-system emacs-build-system) (synopsis "") (description "") (license bsd-3) home-page)' > /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
$ ./pre-inst-env guix build -f /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
/tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm:1:72: error: home-page: invalid field specifier

Guix doesn't return an error concerning the field I just modified, so I can go to the last field still unspecified: home-page. Easy, this one waits for a string.

$ echo '(use-modules (guix packages) (guix build-system emacs) (guix licenses)) (package (name "") (version "") (source origin) (build-system emacs-build-system) (synopsis "") (description "") (license bsd-3) (home-page ""))' > /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
$ ./pre-inst-env guix build -f /tmp/dummy-package-definition.scm
guix build: error: origin: source expression failed to match any pattern

Clearly, we are done specifying the mandatory fields of the package. The new error will make us go into the details of the source object, more precisely, the origin object that is used to value it.

But I'll stop here for today. I'll look into it in a future article. Here is the definition at this point:

(use-modules
 (guix packages)
 (guix build-system emacs)
 (guix licenses))

(package
 (name "")
 (version "")
 (source origin)
 (build-system emacs-build-system)
 (synopsis "")
 (description "")
 (license bsd-3)
 (home-page ""))

Thank you so much for reading this article !

Don't hesitate to give me your opinion, leave a comment, or ask a question via :E-mail: jeremy AT korwin-zmijowski DOT frMastodon: @jeko@framapiaf.orgPeertube: @jeko@video.tedomum.netTwitter: @JeremyKorwin

Also, please subscribe so you don't miss the next ones :blog via Mastodon @jeko@write.as et RSSscreencast via Peertube @jeko@video.tedomum.net et RSS

And most importantly, share the blog and tell your friends it's the best blog in the history of Free Software! No shit!

#guix #package #english