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| author | Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler@gmail.com> | 2024-06-23 15:17:07 +0200 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler@gmail.com> | 2024-07-07 08:04:46 +0200 |
| commit | 8546ca946e617c32ef3bb60947e368f7d038090c (patch) | |
| tree | 28d1b668f749dc5583c6e16f32594ef576be7a70 /doc | |
| parent | 93c48a813d9c2900245f4e148f4a6a71a94228b3 (diff) | |
| download | guix-8546ca946e617c32ef3bb60947e368f7d038090c.tar guix-8546ca946e617c32ef3bb60947e368f7d038090c.tar.gz | |
doc: Update note on Emacs packages.
* doc/guix.texi ("Emacs packages"): Expand note to talk about differences
between native compilation upstream and as used in Guix.
Diffstat (limited to 'doc')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/guix.texi | 31 |
1 files changed, 22 insertions, 9 deletions
diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi index 7d0824784d..5b77c84b4a 100644 --- a/doc/guix.texi +++ b/doc/guix.texi @@ -1878,15 +1878,28 @@ running Emacs with the @option{--no-site-file} option (@pxref{Init File,,, emacs, The GNU Emacs Manual}). @quotation Note -Emacs can now compile packages natively. Under the default -configuration, this means that Emacs packages will now be -just-in-time (JIT) compiled as you use them, and the results -stored in a subdirectory of your @code{user-emacs-directory}. - -Furthermore, the build system for Emacs packages transparently -supports native compilation, but note, that -@code{emacs-minimal}---the default Emacs for building -packages---has been configured without native compilation. +Most Emacs variants are now capable of doing native compilation. +The approach taken by Guix Emacs however differs greatly +from the approach taken upstream. + +Upstream Emacs compiles packages just-in-time and typically places +shared object files in a special folder within your +@code{user-emacs-directory}. +These shared objects within said folder are organized in a +flat hierarchy, and their file names contain two hashes to +verify the original file name and contents of the source code. + +Guix Emacs on the other hand prefers to compile packages ahead-of-time. +Shared objects retain much of the original file name and no hashes +are added to verify the original file name or the contents of the file. +Crucially, this allows Guix Emacs and packages built against it +to be grafted (@pxref{Security Updates, grafts}), but at the same time, +Guix Emacs lacks the hash-based verification of source code baked +into upstream Emacs. As this naming schema is trivial to exploit, +we disable just-in-time compilation. + +Further note, that @code{emacs-minimal}---the default Emacs +for building packages---has been configured without native compilation. To natively compile your emacs packages ahead of time, use a transformation like @option{--with-input=emacs-minimal=emacs}. @end quotation |