Subject: bug#43364: with-output-to-port works with file ports

From: Fabio Natali <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2024 17:32:52 +0100

Dear All 👋,

I've been encountering a few times the need for a procedure like
'system' or 'system*' but that might be capable of capturing the output
of the program that's being called.

While this is something that can be solved with a simple 'open-pipe*'
wrapper, the pattern seems relatively frequent in Guix, which is where I
noticed it. I suggested that some variant of such a wrapper could be
added to '(guix build utils)'⁰.

In reply to my post, it was brought to my attention that the problem
might be addressed at the Guile level and pointed me to this bug report.

I thought of sending a quick follow-up here to see if there's any rough
consensus on a possible way of addressing this - or why it might be
difficult or potentially not worth the effort.

Thanks, all best, Fabio.

⁰ https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2024-04/msg00199.html

-- 
Fabio Natali
https://fabionatali.com