Subject: bug#22629: [PATCH 0/4] 'guix pull' produces a self-contained Guix

From: Chris Marusich <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2018 21:45:51 -0700

Hi Ludo,

Ludovic Courtès <[email-masked]> writes:

> Here is the “new” ‘guix pull’ that we discussed notably in this thread:
>
>   https://bugs.gnu.org/22629

Although I've been enjoying the new guix pull for a while now, I just
today found the time to take a peek at these code changes.  It's always
educational to see how you write your code!

I was surprised that "guix pull" doesn't build the guix package via the
usual mechanisms (e.g., the way it would be built if I ran "guix build
guix").  The new "guix pull" code builds a profile, so it seems like we
could put packages in there (e.g., a guix package that inherits from the
original but replaces the origin with a Git checkout).  However, instead
of re-using the build logic encapsulated in the guix package, it looks
like we build Guix piece by piece using custom build logic in (guix
self).  Why do we do that?

These improvements are great!  I'm just curious about the motivation for
the custom build logic.  I'm guessing there is some sort of complication
to simply using the guix package that is non-obvious, but I can't see
what it is.

-- 
Chris