Subject: [bug#75981] [PATCH (WIP) v1.5 0/4] Add 'guix fork'.

From: Nicolas Graves <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2025 08:47:33 +0100

Adding my grain of salt, a bit late, but since I'm CCed :)

I think having an extension is also a way to solidify and tests things
before thinking of moving CLI functionalities upstream, when it will
make sense for users.  Like git or emacs extensions, when the idea is
inevitable and sound enough, extensions or similar functionality
eventually gets merged upstream.

I also work on an extension of guix for working more easily on local
repos.  I do not advertise it now because it isn't polished.  It doesn't
have the same goal as`guix fork`, although it probably targets the same
audience.  The focus is on
1) reproducibility of guix with unmerged patches when you don't want a
fork online (precisely to avoid accumulating unmerged patches in a fork,
but still have your dozen patches when you need them),
2) performance gains from having profiles generated from compiled
bytecode instead of recompiled from scratch)

I find the format of extensions very adapted to that kind of need (for
some users with a particular need, but building upon Guix).  Guix
extensions are still undocumented and missing some integration options
(but being worked on in 74633).

I probably won't try to upstream it, except if it makes sense down the
line. 

For those curious, it's in the unlisted repo
https://git.sr.ht/~ngraves/guix-stack

I will announce it when I'll be happy with it myself.

-- 
Best regards,
Nicolas Graves