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-rw-r--r--doc/guix.texi21
1 files changed, 17 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi
index a63602162d..bdba88e2e2 100644
--- a/doc/guix.texi
+++ b/doc/guix.texi
@@ -2492,6 +2492,14 @@ following:
@table @code
+@item --load-path=@var{directory}
+@itemx -L @var{directory}
+Add @var{directory} to the front of the package module search path
+(@pxref{Package Modules}).
+
+This allows users to define their own packages and make them visible to
+the command-line tools.
+
@item --keep-failed
@itemx -K
Keep the build tree of failed builds. Thus, if a build fail, its build
@@ -3951,17 +3959,22 @@ Reference Manual}). For instance, the @code{(gnu packages emacs)}
module exports a variable named @code{emacs}, which is bound to a
@code{<package>} object (@pxref{Defining Packages}).
-The @code{(gnu packages @dots{})} module name space is special: it is
+The @code{(gnu packages @dots{})} module name space is
automatically scanned for packages by the command-line tools. For
instance, when running @code{guix package -i emacs}, all the @code{(gnu
packages @dots{})} modules are scanned until one that exports a package
object whose name is @code{emacs} is found. This package search
facility is implemented in the @code{(gnu packages)} module.
+@cindex customization, of packages
Users can store package definitions in modules with different
-names---e.g., @code{(my-packages emacs)}. In that case, commands such
-as @command{guix package} and @command{guix build} have to be used with
-the @code{-e} option so that they know where to find the package.
+names---e.g., @code{(my-packages emacs)}. These package definitions
+will not be visible by default. Thus, users can invoke commands such as
+@command{guix package} and @command{guix build} have to be used with the
+@code{-e} option so that they know where to find the package, or use the
+@code{-L} option of these commands to make those modules visible
+(@pxref{Invoking guix build, @code{--load-path}}). The latter makes it
+easy to customize the distribution.
The distribution is fully @dfn{bootstrapped} and @dfn{self-contained}:
each package is built based solely on other packages in the