Guix-emacs doesn't work

Hi folks! I decided to check-in on the status of the guix-emacs? package, since my understanding is it's had a change of maintainership a little over a year ago after its previous abandonware status.

First I installed it into my normal Spacemacs setup, and that didn't work at all. Running guix-packages-by-name yielded this error:

But I hardly blame any package for not working with Spacemacs - most packages do just fine, but occasionally when something doesn't work it's Spacemacs fault. So I set out to create a minimal reproduction. Here's what I came up with:

To start Emacs, I ran:

?

If my understanding is correct, this creates a container with only Emacs, Guix, and the emacs-guix elisp package installed in there, with network access and my TERM environment set but otherwise with none of my Spacemacs or other user config.

Inside this Emacs, I again ran guix-packages-by-name? and got a nearly identical error:

?

For completeness, I also tried a few other commands, like guix-installed-packages? and guix-profiles-show?. These each have subtly different errors, but none of them remotely work.

Those of us who use Emacs and have some experience with elisp and Guile should consider swarming on this package to get it working, since it is a touted feature with Guix in the name, so people try when they're giving Guix a shot. A working Emacs integration would be something I'd use every day and a great showcase for what Guix can do when integrated into hacking workflows.

If that's proves not to be feasible, we might want to consider deprecating the package, removing it from Guix and Melpa. Its protracted state of disrepair and uselessness (it hasn't worked since I started using Guix in ~2018) may be giving people the impression that Guix is not well maintained. This should be a last resort, as getting the package working would be dramatically preferable, but there are stakes here in terms of cost to Guix reputation that imo cannot be ignored.

Cheers,

Ryan

Hello Ryan,

unfortunately guix-emacs never worked for me too, in the last couple of

years

Ryan Prior via Bug reports for GNU Guix <bug-guix@gnu.org> writes:

[...]

I'm running Guix on Debian, using a dedicated profile for Emacs with

many packages installed, emacs-guix included; I'm not using

Spacemacs... but I cannot exclude some status in my ~/emacs.d is

interfering

This is my version:

GNU Guix... "dirty" version? I have to check, but it seems unrelated.

[...]

Running the same command "guix-packages-by-name", I also get the

(almost) same error (from *Messages* buffer):

with "guix-installed-packages" I get this error:

[...]

Thanks! Gio'

--

Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures

Hello Ryan,

I was able to solve.

Giovanni Biscuolo <g@xelera.eu> writes:

actually, some command worked some time ago (e.g. profiles list) but I

was never able to use guix-emacs to view packages, for exemple

I have updated today, now my version is:

but I doubt the issue was version related since the emacs-guix package

version is the same

[...]

The most similar upstream bug is this one:

In that thread Adam Porter points to this comment that explains how to

start Guix REPL instead of Guile REPL, from emacs-guix:

Evaluating the above code /before/ starting any emacs-guix command (thus

before starting Guile REPL) all is working well now!

I repeat, I'm using emacs-guix on a foreing distro, I don't know if on

Guix System this workaround is not needed.

[...]

HTH! Ciao, Gio'

--

Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures

Giovanni Biscuolo writes:

Hi!

Great!

I'm on Guix System and emacs-guix's command line completion hasn't

worked for me for about a year. Starting an emacs shell and typing

"guix TAB", I got

Starting Guix REPL ... [5 times]

guix-geiser-eval: Error in evaluating guile expression: ice-9/boot-9.scm:1685:16: In procedure raise-exception:

/home/janneke/.config/guix/current/share/guile/site/3.0/guix/scripts/deploy.scm:169:7: Unknown # object: "#~"

Entering a new prompt. Type `,bt' for a backtrace or `,q' to continue.

scheme@(emacs-guix) [1]>

This sort-of works for me, i.e., typing "guix TAB" in an emacs shell

buffer no longer gives this error...but there also are no completions.

My ~/.emacs/init_bash.sh is empty and I seem to remember having

something there?

Greetings,

Janneke

--

Jan Nieuwenhuizen <janneke@gnu.org> | GNU LilyPond http://lilypond.org

Freelance IT http://JoyofSource.com| Avatar® http://AvatarAcademy.com

Hi Jan,

sorry for this late reply,

Jan Nieuwenhuizen <janneke@gnu.org> writes:

[...]

it does not work for me too, but with a very different behaviour:

[...]

with the completion pattern "guix <TAB>" I get "guix --help" right in

the shell (and eshell) buffer but if I try any other pattern, e.g. "guix

pa<TAB>", I just get "No match" in the minibuffer (and no debug tracing

in the "*Guix REPL*" buffer)

I read (emacs-guix)Completions and it seems I do not need to configure

anything to have completion in shell and eshell when emacs-guix is

installed: do I miss something? Actually I never configured

shell/eshell completion for any command, so I may be missing something.

Maybe the workaround I use to start guix REPL:

[...]

is breaking completion?

I don't have that file.

Anyway, Jan, I think this bug is different from the one in the subject,

we should have a look upsteam (eventually linking here some ref) and

open a new upsteam bug report if needed: WDYT?

--

Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures

Hi Ryan,

Giovanni Biscuolo <g@xelera.eu> writes:

[...]

please can you confirm the above workaround is also working for you?

In that case we should close this bug, WDYT?

[...]

Thanks, Gio'

--

Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures

Hi,

this no longer seems to be a problem. Can you please confirm that this

issue can be closed now?

--

Ricardo

Hi,

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:

unfortunately emacs-guix still does not work (in my setup)

If I try to list packages or profiles I always get:

even if I apply the "workaround" that worked for me some time ago

I don't have muchi time right now, probably tonight I'll try to check if

this depends on my configuration and will do some test

Thanks! Gio'

--

Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures

Hi,

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:

When starting guix-emacs with "M-x guix" and trying listing profiles or

packages I always get this error:

Some time ago (see this bug thread, 2022-04-21) I was able to apply this

workaround:

but now it's not working anymore.

If I start emacs in a shell with:

and emacs-guix with "M-x guix", then try to list profiles or packages

but I get this error message:

I'm still not able to run emacs-guix, how I can help debugging this?

Thanks! Gio'

--

Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures

Hi,

Giovanni Biscuolo <g@xelera.eu> writes:

Sorry the above message is misleading: I did not realize that I already

had a "Guix REPL" already open, I killed the REPL and this is the error

message I get when I start "M-x guix" and then try to gel my profiles

list:

(That's the same I get when I start emacs-guix in a guix shell)

This is the error I get in the "Guix REPL" buffer:

this is the backtrace

if I "manually" give the same command in the REPL buffer, I get no

error:

then I try again to list all my profiles via "M-x guix" (then select "P"

and "a") but I get the following message:

But now the "Guix REPL" does not give any error, it's "stopped" at the

same prompt given above ("scheme@(emacs-guix) [1]>")

[...]

Thanks! Gio'

--

Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures

Hi,

Giovanni Biscuolo <g@xelera.eu> writes:

Sorry the above message is misleading: I did not realize that I already

had a "Guix REPL" already open, I killed the REPL and this is the error

message I get when I start "M-x guix" and then try to gel my profiles

list:

(That's the same I get when I start emacs-guix in a guix shell)

This is the error I get in the "Guix REPL" buffer:

this is the backtrace

if I "manually" give the same command in the REPL buffer, I get no

error:

then I try again to list all my profiles via "M-x guix" (then select "P"

and "a") but I get the following message:

But now the "Guix REPL" does not give any error, it's "stopped" at the

same prompt given above ("scheme@(emacs-guix) [1]>")

[...]

Thanks! Gio'

--

Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures

Hi Giovanni,

thank you for testing.

Can you please confirm that this is reproducible even in “guix shell -C”?

--

Ricardo

Hi Ricardo,

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:

It's reproducible but with a minor difference: I also get a buffer named

*Guix Internal REPL* (see below)

I'm not able to start a graphical emacs container, I get only a text

interface (but I guess it's the same for the scope of this bug report):

in *Messages* I get:

but this time I get 2 REPL: one named "*Guix REPL*" with this prompt:

and a second one named "*Guix Internal REPL*" (missing in my previous

tests) with this prompt:

I missed to report that I also see a third *Geiser Messages* (also

present in my previous tests) buffer with this content:

Thanks! Gio'

--

Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures

------- Original Message -------

On Monday, March 20th, 2023 at 7:09 PM, Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> wrote:

I can confirm that the emacs-guix package is still broken.

## Steps to reproduce

1. launch Emacs in a container:

$ guix shell -C --no-cwd --expose=/gnu --expose=/var --share=/tmp -E DISPLAY emacs emacs-guix -- emacs

2. run M-x guix-installed-packages

### Expected result

A list of installed packages should appear.

### Actual result

In *Messages* buffer:

## My Guix version

$ guix --version | grep guix

guix (GNU Guix) 51f8a7aced70b7f79037bd99019dddaea07ced25

## Discussion

When I was working to create an Emacs Guix package (https://github.com/ryanprior/emacs-guix-packaging)to support my own workflows, folks were critical of how I run Guix commands in the shell and parse the output instead of building on the Emacs Guix package and its Guile REPL approach. But in practice, this package has never worked for me, I always get REPL errors.

Since then, I have often discussed emacs-guix with other Emacs users in the community and thus realized I'm far from the only one who's never once got it to work. Today, despite the efforts of multiple engineers, it remains reproducibly broken.

My inclination would be to remove entirely the dependency on Geiser and the Guix REPL, opting instead to connect to a guix-ui service over a stable HTTP API. The API endpoints would be documented and tested as part of the formal interface to Guix, and the Emacs package would become a client of that interface.

Whether you like my alternative or not, do most Guix maintainers have confidence in the current approach and think emacs-guix just needs a bugfix here or there, or does anyone else get the impression that it's unsound and needs a new approach?

Ryan

Ryan Prior <rprior@protonmail.com> writes:

FWIW M-x guix-installed-packages (and all the other stuff) works for me

with my Emacs config. I haven’t tried to reproduce this in a container

yet without my Emacs config, but I’ll try soon.

--

Ricardo