Subject: [bug#60521] [PATCH] home: Add home-stow-migration-service.

From: Ludovic Courtès <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2024 17:10:10 +0100

Hi,

Sergey Trofimov <[email-masked]> skribis:

> Anyway, the reason I replied was that I am also a former Stow user and
> in my eyes we should've extended existing `home-files-service-type`
> instead of making a specialized new one.

‘home-dotfiles-service-type’ technically does extend
‘home-files-service-type’.

> If you check `stow` manual
> (https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/manual/html_node/Invoking-Stow.html#Invoking-Stow),
> it should be invoked with the names of packages to be
> installed/removed. `home-dotfiles-service` doesn't have a parameter
> for the list of packages and assumes that everything in the specified
> directory should be installed, a limitation that prevents me to start
> using it. In my dotfiles I have optional packages which I install
> depending on OS or machine's purpose. Sure the service could be
> amended with the said parameter, but why adding a new service when a
> more generic one exists and is fitting the use case?

The way I see it, ‘home-dotfiles-service-type’ makes it easier to do
what one could have done with raw ‘home-files-service-type’.  The
interface is nice IMO.

Now, we can still change the implementation as we see fit, and for
instance allow users to specify a predicate in the ‘excluded’ field, or
anything that would help address your use case.

WDYT?

Ludo’.