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authorRicardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>2018-10-13 08:39:23 +0200
committerRicardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>2018-12-09 13:55:22 +0100
commitaf12790bdd3805bbd7bca2b7c1d9045666f377eb (patch)
tree1d60a9b45098f39a2b3455bd27bf932f4de5ffbf /doc
parentd7e24652426dd4291eb8592dfcf1aed3a41289aa (diff)
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guix: Add support for channel dependencies.
* guix/channels.scm (<channel-metadata>): New record. (read-channel-metadata, channel-instance-dependencies): New procedures. (latest-channel-instances): Include channel dependencies; add optional argument PREVIOUS-CHANNELS. (channel-instance-derivations): Build derivation for additional channels and add it as dependency to the channel instance derivation. * doc/guix.texi (Channels): Add subsection "Declaring Channel Dependencies". * tests/channels.scm: New file. * Makefile.am (SCM_TESTS): Add it.
Diffstat (limited to 'doc')
-rw-r--r--doc/guix.texi33
1 files changed, 33 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi
index 4ef2601579..20b5013fd9 100644
--- a/doc/guix.texi
+++ b/doc/guix.texi
@@ -3037,6 +3037,39 @@ the new and upgraded packages that are listed, some like @code{my-gimp} and
@code{my-emacs-with-cool-features} might come from
@code{my-personal-packages}, while others come from the Guix default channel.
+@cindex dependencies, channels
+@cindex meta-data, channels
+@subsection Declaring Channel Dependencies
+
+Channel authors may decide to augment a package collection provided by other
+channels. They can declare their channel to be dependent on other channels in
+a meta-data file @file{.guix-channel}, which is to be placed in the root of
+the channel repository.
+
+The meta-data file should contain a simple S-expression like this:
+
+@lisp
+(channel
+ (version 0)
+ (dependencies
+ (channel
+ (name 'some-collection)
+ (url "https://example.org/first-collection.git"))
+ (channel
+ (name 'some-other-collection)
+ (url "https://example.org/second-collection.git")
+ (branch "testing"))))
+@end lisp
+
+In the above example this channel is declared to depend on two other channels,
+which will both be fetched automatically. The modules provided by the channel
+will be compiled in an environment where the modules of all these declared
+channels are available.
+
+For the sake of reliability and maintainability, you should avoid dependencies
+on channels that you don't control, and you should aim to keep the number of
+dependencies to a minimum.
+
@subsection Replicating Guix
@cindex pinning, channels