Re: Distributing packages with native emacs modules

[Stefan Monnier]

> I'm trying to figure out how to distribute a package which has some C++ code
> implementing an emacs module. I'm currently not 100% clear on all that:
> 1) It seems the package repo's only do byte compilation of el files?

Yes and no: it's not the package's repository which does it, but the
`package.el` code in the Emacs program used to install the package
(i.e. it applies to all packages installed with `package.el`, whether
they come from a repository or not).

> 2) Are there examples or packages doing compilation of modules?

A few, yes.  E.g. the `emacs-tree-sitter` package.

Actually, IIUC the `ada-mode` package in GNU ELPA also kind of does
that, except I believe it uses a separate executable rather than
a module.  [ I believe the same applies to `pdf-tools`.  ]

> 3) It would be possible to wrap the compilation of the package in an
> "(eval-when-compile" but that would be quite laborious.

That's the route I recommend, tho a good option is to do it more lazily
(i.e. not when the package is byte-compiled but when it's first loaded),
and an even better one is to do it both ways.

> 4) The other option is to ship the code to the user and tell him/her
> to run the compilation
> if the binary module isn't there yet (possible providing an elisp
> function to do that).

I think you'll want a function/command for that in any case
(i.e. whether or not you run that function from
`eval-when-compile`), yes.


        Stefan