[Nix-dev] Override bash or submit alternative bash pkgs to nixpkgs?

[Sergiu Ivanov]

Hello Matthias,

Thus quoth  Matthias Beyer  at 12:51 on Fr, Sep 09 2016:
>
> I want to try out a patched bash:
>
>     https://github.com/calid/bash
>
> because of the enhanced prompt indicators for vi-mode:
>
>     https://github.com/calid/bash#bash-with-configurable-mode-strings
>
> The bash is not changed from the original bash, as far as I can see, 
> it just uses this modified readline:
>
>     https://github.com/calid/readline/tree/modestrs-bash-embedded
>
> My question is: What would be my approach in trying this out?

I would suggest patching readline locally and rebuilding bash against
your patched version.  I would do it in the following way:

 1. Git clone the nixpkgs tree: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs

 2. Modify readline to include the patch
 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/tree/master/pkgs/development/libraries/readline

 3. Reinstall bash (and readline) from your local copy.

I like using [0] for quick reference.  [1] is more detailed but way
longer.

> Or would it be better so submit a modification to readline so one can 
> build bash with the modified readline right from the nixpkgs 
> repository?

I'm not really knowledgeable on that, but I believe that people around
here welcome contributions to nixpkgs, so, after making sure your
modified readline package works, you can submit the change to the
official source tree.

You can probably add an option to readline saying whether the patch
should be applied or not.

-- 
Sergiu

[0] https://nixos.org/wiki/Create_and_debug_nix_packages

[1] https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/manual/
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