Re: What is :core? (was: Stability of core packages (was: Not easy at all to upgrade :core packages like Eglot))

[Lynn Winebarger]

On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 8:58 AM Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> This discussion no longer belongs to the bug tracker, so I'm moving it
> to emacs-devel and changing its Subject.  Please reply here, not
> there.

Is there any documentation for what ":core" refers to?  Executing
"grep -rn ':core' *" in the emacs source yields the following, which
doesn't include any explanation:


ChangeLog.3:81561: Turn Eldoc, Xref and Project into GNU ELPA :core packages
ChangeLog.3:236132: * lisp/emacs-lisp/let-alist.el: Now an Elpa :core package
ChangeLog.4:12044: project.el is a GNU ELPA :core package, so this
kind of trick isn't
lisp/emacs-lisp/eldoc.el:11:;; This is a GNU ELPA :core package.
Avoid functionality that is not
lisp/emacs-lisp/let-alist.el:12:;; This is an Elpa :core package.
Don't use functionality that is not
lisp/jsonrpc.el:10:;; This is a GNU ELPA :core package.  Avoid
functionality that is not
lisp/progmodes/project.el:7:;; This is a GNU ELPA :core package.
Avoid using functionality that
lisp/progmodes/flymake.el:11:;; This is a GNU ELPA :core package.
Avoid functionality that is not
lisp/progmodes/xref.el:7:;; This is a GNU ELPA :core package.  Avoid
functionality that is not
lisp/progmodes/eglot.el:12:;; This is a GNU ELPA :core package.  Avoid
adding functionality
lisp/progmodes/eglot.el:57:;;   available as GNU ELPA :core packages.
Historically, a number of
lisp/progmodes/eglot.el:58:;;   :core packages were added or reworked
in Emacs to make this
test/lisp/progmodes/eglot-tests.el:39:;; IMPORTANT: Since Eglot is a
:core ELPA package, these tests are

Lynn