Subject: bug#35864: ~/.local/bin is missing in default PATH on Guix System

From: Giovanni Biscuolo <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 May 2019 08:49:30 +0200

Hi Florian,

this is not a bug, it's a feature :-)

the "semantic" reason not to include ~/.local/bin in default path is to
clearly state "use Guix" (even on foreign distros) to allow users to
install packages and avoid the ~/<something>/bin _broken_ workaround

IMHO at most ~/.local/bin is useful for user written scripts (but I
prefer ~/bin for mine)

"pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <[email-masked]> writes:

> On Thu, May 23, 2019 at 09:31:09PM +0200, Tobias Geerinckx-Rice wrote:
>> pelzflorian (Florian Pelz) wrote:
>> > Adding ~/.local/bin to the PATH is common on other distros.

[...]

> My motivation was that I would have liked a uniform standard to exist
> for offering uniform, simple compilation instructions

I can't understand what ~/.local/bin have to do with *compilation*: do
you mean installation?

...and AFAIU no distribution on earth install packages (or links) in
~/.local/bin

Guix deploys in ~/.guix-profile/bin/ linking from the store... and it's
awesome :-)

[...]

> for how-to-install sections in software project README files.

It's easier to add instructions on how to add ~/.local/bin in $PATH, no?
:-)

anyway software projects that want to help users to install (without
root permissions) in a sane way should define a Guix package, no more
workarounds please

[...]

> Many other distributions are discussed at my stackexchange link from
> before.

not Guix nor Nix, IMHO it's because they choose to depart from the
problematic FSH and derivatives long time ago and for this reason they
are generally ignored when discussing FSH issues

> I did not know about ~/bin being conventional, but others mention it
> too.  I do not like ~/bin for the reasons you stated:

do you mean you don't like it because it's not hidden? :-)

I don't like ~/.local/bin because it's ".local":

«Care should be taken when placing architecture-dependent binaries in
this place, which might be problematic if the home directory is shared
between multiple hosts with different architectures.»
(from [1])

[...]

last but not least, probably systemd file-hieracy [1] is one of the
*problematic* things of systemd ecosystem we should avoid

...I even ignored the existance of systemd file-hieracy: an init system
defining a filesystem hieracy standard: mumble...

Happy hacking! Gio'.

[1] https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/file-hierarchy.html

-- 
Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures