Re: Drop tarball releases and go ELPA only

[Tassilo Horn]

Arash Esbati <arash@gnu.org> writes:

>> See (info "(emacs) Package Files"):
>>
>>    In addition to ‘package-user-dir’, Emacs looks for installed
>> packages in the directories listed in ‘package-directory-list’.
>> These directories are meant for system administrators to make Emacs
>> packages available system-wide; Emacs itself never installs packages
>> there.  The package subdirectories for ‘package-directory-list’ are
>> laid out in the same way as in ‘package-user-dir’.
>
> What does the above mean in practical terms?  I don't see how one can
> say: Emacs, please install this auctex-from-elpa.tar under
> `package-directory-list'.  So a downstream distro manager has to
> install AUCTeX from ELPA locally, and then repack that installation
> and distribute it for pure unpacking in `package-directory-list'?

Yes, that's what I would assume, too.  And that's what packagers already
do, right?  The difference is just that previously the package went into
../site-lisp/auctex/ and the packager had to add code so that the
packages below ../site-lisp/ were added to load-path and now into
../site-lisp/elpa/auctex/ and the usual ELPA semantics apply.  I would
say it's now easier for packagers.

Bye,
  Tassilo