Re: [PATCH 5/5] gnu: Add emacs-mmm-mode

[Alex Kost]

Mark H Weaver (2015-07-09 02:19 +0300) wrote:

> Alex Kost <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> Ludovic Courtès (2015-07-04 18:16 +0300) wrote:
>>
>>> Alex Kost <address@hidden> skribis:
>>>
>>>> I think I've found a problem with downloading packages from melpa-stable
>>>> (probably the same will be with 'melpa', but I don't know).  I tried to
>>>> build this 'emacs-mmm-mode' package but it failed because
>>>> <http://stable.melpa.org/packages/mmm-mode-0.5.2.tar> does not exist
>>>> anymore (because the current version is 0.5.4).
>>>
>>> If tarball deletion or renaming is common on MELPA, then maybe we could
>>> address it by providing an additional alternate URL, as is done for
>>> ‘lftp’ and other packages.  WDYT?
>>
>> If I understand correctly, there is no alternative URL.  Only URL for a
>> latest version.  (but I may be wrong)
>
> emacs-mmm-mode is failing to build on hydra, because the downloaded
> tarball doesn't match the expected hash:
>
> http://hydra.gnu.org/build/563640/nixlog/1/tail-reload
>
>
> starting download of 
> `/gnu/store/gdwf9rsqvvqqb77qkgpp94w8k8z1i6wf-mmm-mode-0.5.4.tar' from 
> `http://stable.melpa.org/packages/mmm-mode-0.5.4.tar'...
>
> http://stable.melpa.org/.../mmm-mode-0.5.4.tar          0.0% of 300.0 KiB (0. 
> KiB/s)
> http://stable.melpa.org/.../mmm-mode-0.5.4.tar         21.3% of 300.0 KiB 
> (405. KiB/s)
> http://stable.melpa.org/.../mmm-mode-0.5.4.tar         42.7% of 300.0 KiB 
> (372. KiB/s)
> http://stable.melpa.org/.../mmm-mode-0.5.4.tar         64.0% of 300.0 KiB 
> (439. KiB/s)
> http://stable.melpa.org/.../mmm-mode-0.5.4.tar         85.3% of 300.0 KiB 
> (411. KiB/s)
> http://stable.melpa.org/.../mmm-mode-0.5.4.tar        100.0% of 300.0 KiB 
> (419. KiB/s)
> output path `/gnu/store/gdwf9rsqvvqqb77qkgpp94w8k8z1i6wf-mmm-mode-0.5.4.tar' 
> should have sha256 hash 
> `1llkzb6d978ym3zv3yfzwj0w5zzmmj3ksrm5swrx1papxcnqnkb9', instead has 
> `1kjc41nlsf7qxmmy9mrzk6myinjvc550zl5ia0ivvdz945x39yay'
>
> What went wrong here?

Wow, it looks like using melpa(-stable) URLs are even more unreliable
than I thought.  I've just downloaded 'mmm-mode-0.5.4.tar' and the hash
is different again:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ guix download http://stable.melpa.org/packages/mmm-mode-0.5.4.tar
starting download of `/tmp/guix-file.V1XHG4' from 
`http://stable.melpa.org/packages/mmm-mode-0.5.4.tar'...
http://stable.melpa.org/.../mmm-mode-0.5.4.tar  100.0% of 300.0 KiB (110. KiB/s)
/gnu/store/mqkacn4hm16j7cx91g4ml9287bznfva1-mmm-mode-0.5.4.tar
0bsbp93wb5b78yp2gyvk4jkmv6vawcwyyfy35wbq6hdfi5q75a9w
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

So my guess is: MELPA periodically updates all the tarballs, not just
the packages with the new version tags.  I think it means we should
refuse from using melpa(-stable) tarballs and use the upstream releases
instead.  In this particular case it will be
<https://github.com/purcell/mmm-mode/archive/0.5.4.tar.gz>.

Also I think if an emacs package provides a proper gnu build system it
should be prefered over the emacs build system (as it may provide tests
and, dunno, it's just the usual way to go).  If people agree on this,
what about the attached patch?

0001-gnu-emacs-mmm-mode-Use-gnu-build-system.patch
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