Subject: [bug#39258] [PATCH v2 0/3] Xapian for Guix package search

From: Arun Isaac <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2020 11:07:09 +0530

> Currently, profile hooks such as ‘%channel-profile-hooks’, receive a
> complete profile—in this case, the composition of all the channels the
> user chose.
>
> So if we want to achieve what you propose, we’d need to find another way
> to hook database generation.

Hmmm. Tough luck, I suppose. Do you have suggestions for anywhere else
to hook database generation?

> BTW, there’s also the problem of modules added dynamically with
> $GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH or ‘-L’.  With the proposed scheme, it seems that
> they could no longer be searched.  Is that correct?

Unfortunately, that is correct. To address this, we discussed retaining
the current search implementation along with the new xapian
implementation. But, that changes the search query behaviour and
adds a lot of complexity. I'll think of some other way out.

> (Conversely the package cache is optional: it’s only used when it’s
> considered authoritative, see (gnu packages).  The API and behavior are
> exactly the same whether or not the package cache is used.)

Thanks,
Arun