Re: NonGNU ELPA

[Antoine Kalmbach]

Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com> writes:

>> Maybe we start with the CI for GNU ELPA on emba.gnu.org? I expect to run
>> very similar tasks for GNU ELPA and NonGNU ELPA.
>
> Indeed.  It would be good if someone could start implementing this.

I think the gist of the ELPA CI would be something like:

  1. Clone the repository and emacs.git
  2. Build the package archive

These steps already have automation in place, since that's what is done
for building the ELPA index. Then, for the CI run,

  3. Start a batch Emacs instance and replace `package-archives' with
     (("elpa-test" . "/path/to/built/archive")) where that path points
     to the built package archive in step 2.

  4. Loop through each package and run `package-install` on it. 
  5. Optionally run also some linters etc., like checkdoc.

The good part about this is that it's essentially just taking existing
automation one step further, i.e. verifying each package in the
repository can actually be installed.  I have no idea what's going to
happen with cyclic dependencies though.  I suppose package.el can handle
all that.

-- 
Antoine Kalmbach