guix-package-manager-tutorials/make-a-package/using-guile-hall/guide.org

Guide

Converting an existing project

hall init --convert --author AUTHOR_NAME --prefix SOURCE_DIR --license LICENSE_NAME PROJECT_NAME --execute

Explanation

• hall~: executable of ~guile-hall
• init~: subcommand of ~hall which initiates a project, either creating a completely new project, or converting an existing project
• ~--author~: allows to specify the author of the project
• ~--prefix~: the directory, which is the top level directory of you source code
• --license~: the license name, which ~hall will translate to a license text in a license file called COPYING
• --execute~: tells ~guile-hall to not only dry-run, but actually perform the changes, which conversely means leaving away --execute results in a dry-run, displaying the changes, which guile~hall would perform

Result

guile-hall will create typical files one might need when making a GNU Guix package. You might need to adapt a few of the values in hall.scm, as they can be incorrect for existing projects, which do not exactly follow the file structure guile-hall assumes.

For example the hall init command does not check, whether its assumptions about where your tests are located is correct. It assumes them to be in tests/, but you might have them in test/.

A lot of the defaults will probably not match your project's structure and you will have to adapt the corresponding values.

Steps after converting a project

• guix.scm
• Check if the license file is correct, or you have multiple license files in your project now.
• Correct the version number in guix.scm.
• Correct the source attribute in guix.scm, according to the version number.
• Write a synopsis in the synopsis field.
• Write a description in the description field.
• Check if the license field has the correct license name.
• hall.scm
• Correct the version number field version in hall.scm.
• Write a synopsis in the synopsis field.
• Write a description in the description field.
• Check if the license field has the correct license name.
• Correct the libraries value.
• Correct the tests value.