Re: Core ELPA was: Testing fontification, indentation, and buffer manipulation

[Phillip Lord]

Stefan Monnier <address@hidden> writes:

>> The only good time it seems easier is stuck on a plane without network.
>
> Working on Emacs without network access is very common for me.
> So it's an important use-case.
>
> I don't really care if there's a configure flag to enable/disable the
> GNU ELPA integration, but I'd want to enable it, and I'd also want my
> builds to keep working without any extra hassle when I'm offline.

Yes, I can see the use case; at the same token I'd much prefer the build
to break rather than provide warnings.

> Also, as a general rule, for technical reasons as well as for privacy
> reasons we consider it important not to initiate network connections
> unless the user explicitly requested that network connection.
> [ Same reason why Emacs doesn't offer to auto-update packages at
>   startup.  ]

Yes, indeed, I can see this.

What about this behaviour:

./configure    (as present -- no ELPA)
./configure --enable-elpa[=some-location]   (ELPA build support)

make elpa-update           (clone or update ELPA to some-location or default)
make                       (build Emacs with ELPA, break if not)
make DEMOTE_ELPA_ERROR=1   (build Emacs with ELPA, warning if not)


The last two could, of course, be swapped:

make                       (build Emacs with ELPA, warning if not)
make ELPA_ERROR=1          (build Emacs with ELPA, break if not)


A simple way to avoid having to run "make elpa-update" manually would be
to use git hooks so that any update of your Emacs clone, would update
your ELPA clone also.

Happy to do either, or what ever variation of the TUI you think makes
sense.

Phil