Re: Local ELPA

[Stephen Leake]

Stefan Monnier <address@hidden> writes:

>> The default make target is all-in-place, which does not produce the
>> required index files.
>
> What index files?

packages/archive-contents

>
>> I found that this works for me:
>> cd /Projects/elpa
>> make archive-tmp process-archive
>
>> Together with:
>
>> (setq package-archives (list (cons "test" 
>> "/Projects/elpa/archive/packages")))
>
> You misunderstand: you shouldn't try to setup a local *archive*.  You want
> to setup a local package *installation*.
>
> So you want to add the directory to package-directory-list (and use
> "make", tho you'll also additionally want to use "make externals").

- that target fails on multiple packages due to various errors.

- it doesn't specify -Q on the 'emacs -f batch-byte-compile' command, so
  it gets confused by previously installed versions of things

- it doesn't add packages/* to the load path, so inter-package
  dependencies fail.

- after ruthlessly deleting failing packages, and adding -Q, it
  succeeds, but does not produce packages/archive-contents, so the
  following fails:

(setq package-archives (list (cons "test" "/Projects/elpa/packages")))

M-x list-packages

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (file-error "Opening input file" "no such file or 
directory" "c:/Projects/elpa/packages/archive-contents")
  insert-file-contents("c:/Projects/elpa/packages/archive-contents")

(a search for 'archive-contents' in any directory turns up no hits)


On the other hand, 'make archive-tmp process-archive' has none of the
above problems, so the following succeeds:

(setq package-archives (list (cons "test" "/Projects/elpa/archive/packages")))

M-x list-packages


The make targets 'archive-tmp process-archive' are part of the normal
ELPA production process, and are therefore maintained well. Apparently
the make target 'all-in-place' is not used much? which explains why it
is broken.

I suggest deleting all-in-place; process-archive takes longer, but since
it actually works, that's not a problem.

-- 
-- Stephe