Re: distinguishing between applications and libraries

[Robert Vollmert]

> On 30. Jun 2019, at 20:01, Pierre Neidhardt <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> Hi Robert!
> 
> `guix search` and other user-facing tools ignore non-exported packages.
> 
> So you can simply use `define` instead of `define-public` to declare a
> package.

Good point, but that breaks down once a library is used by a package
outside that module. E.g. consider the various ghc-* packages. Running
“guix search clock” returns `ghc-clock` and `ocaml-mtime`. The first
needs to be public since it’s used elsewhere, the second is defined
as public anyway. Should that change?

>> - maybe there’s some other simplifications to make in library
>>  package definitions? I’d be happy to not copy over a
>>  long description that no-one’s ever going to read. :)
> 
> The description does not have to be long, in fact it can be just one
> line, but it just explain what the package is here for.  Even if it is
> not exposed to the user, package maintainers will want to know why it's
> here.

Well the real reason why it’s there lies in its reverse dependencies, no?

Robert