bug#67949: 29.1; package-vc-{install,upgrade} modifies tracked files

[Philip Kaludercic]

Sean Allred <allred.sean@gmail.com> writes:

> Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net> writes:
>
>> This is intentional, the -pkg.el file shouldn't be tracked in the
>> repository, as this is a file that should be generated.  When a package
>> is distributed on ELPA, it is generated before the tarball is created,
>> and the same logic is applied locally here as well.
>>
>> That being said, it would be nice if we could be more robust here, as
>> many packages sadly continue to make the mistake of beliving the -pkg.el
>> file is an authoritative source of information.  My guess is that the
>> tricky part will be to ensure that this can be done, independently of
>> the involved VC backend...
>
> Ah, I see. I suppose the package headers are the authoritative source?

Right.

> Even after years of elisp work, I guess I just don't distribute new
> packages often enough to remember this :-)
>
> Seems this is discussed in Info node "(elisp) Library Headers".

So what do you say, is this something where we should try and "do at
least something", or just refer to the Elisp manual and close this
report?

> --
> Sean Allred