GNU bug report logs - #66279
Unexporting <user-account>

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From: Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer <at> gmail.com>
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 66279 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#66279: Unexporting <user-account>
Date: Sun, 01 Oct 2023 16:28:31 -0400

Hi Ludovic,

Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org> writes:

> Hi Maxim,
>
> Commit 03795e2ba27424fc98957da00f6c71325e7ae425 exports the
> <user-account> record type descriptor (RTD).
>
> Common practice is to keep RTDs private because by publishing them, we
> make it harder to change the ABI (because users might be matching fields
> positionally) and we make it trivial for users to forge records of that
> type, bypassing any checks we may have in the official constructor (such
> as “sanitizers”).

Perhaps we should document this?  More power to the users!

> What do you think of reverting this commit?  I don’t see references to
> <user-account> outside of its module.

I'd like to note there are also valid usages requiring a record type,
such as 'match-record' from (guix records).  Otherwise, I don't feel
strongly about it, but if if's done I think the rationale you gave above
should be documented in our contributing guidelines.

-- 
Thanks,
Maxim

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