Re: Emacs release and bundling GNU Elpa

[Stefan Monnier]

> Stefan, you've mentioned a few times here you'd like some
> build-scripts integration between GNU Elpa and the Emacs source at
> build time. Could you clarify on what it would take to get that done?

Good question.  It's mostly open.
I see it happening in steps, mostly for historical reasons:

step-1: we change the tarball-building script so as to pull some
  packages from elpa.git and include them somewhere under the `lisp'
  directory (for example) in the tarballs we distribute.
step-2: we change the build scripts used from a Git checkout so they can
  also use those packages from elpa.git.
step-3: we change the build scripts again so they always use those
  packages from elpa.git.

At step 3, we'd have the following novelties:
- the end user has to checkout both emacs.git and elpa.git before she
  can build Emacs (I suspect there will be some resistance, here).
- packages in emacs/lisp can start to depend on packages from elpa.git.
- we could even include preload some elpa.git packages (i.e. from loadup.el).

I'm not exactly sure we'll ever get to step 3.

> - Is it just a matter of pulling in some extra specified packages when
> building the tarball?

At first, yes.  Tho the "just" has to be adjusted based on the need to
specify exactly which version of the package to include.

> - What/where are the files involved in that process?

admin/make-tarball.txt should give you all the answers.  But the main
step is clearly to run the `make-dist' script.


        Stefan