Quick installation of Emacs modules?

[kj]

Suppose that you get wind of an intriguing extension toocool.el,
and you'd like to take it for a spin right away, in your current
Emacs session. Is there some handy extension (e.g.) that would
let you run something like

(get-me-right-now "toocool")

to locate toocool.el (through channels suitably vetted to avoid
unsavory code), download/install it it, and finally load toocool?
(As a bonus, the details of this process would be cached in a way
that would facilitate reproducing the current repertoire of additions
in a different system, for example, or restoring the current one
if necessary.)

I have not found anything this powerful yet. The best I've found
is Stefan Monnier's install.el, but it "only" installs a previously
downloaded *.el file (I write "only" because I'm sure that there
are plenty of corner-cases and subtleties that install.el must
handle correctly).

Is there a shorter distance between wish and reality here?

Thanks!

[Jason Earl]

Emacs 24 will come complete with package.el. This allows you to add
repositories of packages (it comes with elpa.gnu.org by default) and
install by simply selecting them from a list.

I currently use it to install AucTeX and company-mode, but there are
quite a few packages available that I am itching to try. I am sure that
once Emacs 24 is actually released this is going to become a *lot* more
popular, as it really simplifies installing Emacs packages.

Jason

[kj]

In <87aa19d...@notengoamigos.org> Jason Earl <je...@notengoamigos.org> writes:

>On Tue, May 15 2012, kj wrote:

>> Is there a shorter distance between wish and reality here?

>Emacs 24 will come complete with package.el. This allows you to add
>repositories of packages (it comes with elpa.gnu.org by default) and
>install by simply selecting them from a list.

Okay, as of now it looks like one cannot add any other repos; the
doc says:

;; This code supports a single package repository, ELPA.

ELPA is still tiny, though it has a few interesting-looking items
in it. Thanks for the pointer, anyway. Looking forward to Emacs
24!

[Duncan Oag]

kj <no.e...@please.post> writes:
>
> Okay, as of now it looks like one cannot add any other repos; the
> doc says:
>
> ;; This code supports a single package repository, ELPA.
>
> ELPA is still tiny, though it has a few interesting-looking items
> in it. Thanks for the pointer, anyway. Looking forward to Emacs
> 24!

The version of package.el available at Marmalade supports the use of
multiple repositories. Marmalade also has a lot more packages in it
than is currently in ELPA.

http://marmalade-repo.org/

[Jason Earl]

On Tue, May 15 2012, kj wrote:

> In <87aa19d...@notengoamigos.org> Jason Earl <je...@notengoamigos.org> writes:
>
>>On Tue, May 15 2012, kj wrote:
>
>>> Is there a shorter distance between wish and reality here?
>
>>Emacs 24 will come complete with package.el. This allows you to add
>>repositories of packages (it comes with elpa.gnu.org by default) and
>>install by simply selecting them from a list.
>
> Okay, as of now it looks like one cannot add any other repos; the
> doc says:
>
> ;; This code supports a single package repository, ELPA.
>
> ELPA is still tiny, though it has a few interesting-looking items
> in it. Thanks for the pointer, anyway. Looking forward to Emacs
> 24!

That's interesting, a quick perusal of the package.el source that comes
with my copy of Emacs turns up this:

;; The downloader downloads all dependent packages. By default,
;; packages come from the official GNU sources, but others may be
;; added by customizing the `package-archives' alist. Packages get
;; byte-compiled at install time.

Which seems to jibe with what I remember from lurking on emacs-devel.
Interestingly enough one of the GNU ELPA packages is load-dir which
should also help make loading random packages easier.

Jason

[Stefan Monnier]

> Okay, as of now it looks like one cannot add any other repos; the
> doc says:
> ;; This code supports a single package repository, ELPA.

Not sure what definition of "now" you're using, but the above sentence
is not in Emacs-24's code, instead we have:

(defcustom package-archives '(("gnu" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/"))
"An alist of archives from which to fetch.
The default value points to the GNU Emacs package repository.

Each element has the form (ID . LOCATION).
ID is an archive name, as a string.
LOCATION specifies the base location for the archive.
If it starts with \"http:\", it is treated as a HTTP URL;
otherwise it should be an absolute directory name.
(Other types of URL are currently not supported.)

Only add locations that you trust, since fetching and installing
a package can run arbitrary code."
:type '(alist :key-type (string :tag "Archive name")
:value-type (string :tag "URL or directory name"))
:risky t
:group 'package
:version "24.1")

> The version of package.el available at Marmalade supports the use of
> multiple repositories. Marmalade also has a lot more packages in it

I hope any improvement they might have made was contributed back to
Emacs, so we don't fork that code unnecessarily.


Stefan

[Duncan Oag]

Stefan Monnier <mon...@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>
> I hope any improvement they might have made was contributed back to
> Emacs, so we don't fork that code unnecessarily.
>

i don't think its a fork, just an older snapshot of the package.el in
the bzr repository. (but newer than the one available to download on the
old ELPA site http://tromey.com/elpa/). I'm not sure why Marmalade
aren't linking to the most recent package.el, some incompatibilities
with Emacs 23 maybe?

Duncan

[kj]

In <jwvfwb0zvu0.fsf-mon...@gnu.org> Stefan Monnier <mon...@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> Okay, as of now it looks like one cannot add any other repos; the
>> doc says:
>> ;; This code supports a single package repository, ELPA.

>Not sure what definition of "now" you're using, ...

Well, I wrote that under the apparently erroneous impression that
the version I downloaded by following the instructions given in
tromey.com/elpa/install.html was the latest/"official" version of
package.el. FWIW:

% head ~/.emacs.d/elpa/package.el
;;; package.el --- Simple package system for Emacs

;; Copyright (C) 2007, 2008, 2009 Tom Tromey <tro...@redhat.com>

;; Author: Tom Tromey <tro...@redhat.com>
;; Created: 10 Mar 2007
;; Version: 0.9
;; Keywords: tools

;; This file is not (yet) part of GNU Emacs.


(This thread inadvertently/amusingly/ironically illustrates the
situation that motivated the initial query in the first place:
using publicly available Emacs extensions can be a lot trickier
than one might think...)

[Stefan Monnier]

> Well, I wrote that under the apparently erroneous impression that
> the version I downloaded by following the instructions given in
> tromey.com/elpa/install.html was the latest/"official" version of
> package.el. FWIW:

That's just an old version kept around for Emacs<24.


Stefan

[kj]

Fascinating.



So how is one supposed to find the latest/"official" version?

[Mark Skilbeck]

Here: http://elpa.gnu.org/

[Stefan Monnier]

> So how is one supposed to find the latest/"official" version?

It's the one bundled with Emacs-24 (aka the one in Emacs's Bzr trunk).


Stefan