On 22/04/2023 14:24, Dmitry Gutov wrote:
>>>> I also don't think I like the significant changes in package-update,
>>>> nor understand why they are needed.
>>>
>>> Like I said: the changes are to avoid relying on package-install being
>>> able to install a package that's already installed. Which currently
>>> works only for builtins and when only a user option is set. It's a mess.
>>>
>>> And to "avoid interdependency".
>>
>> Why does this have to be in Emacs 29?  It's a cleanup, right?
> 
> Not a cleanup, no. If I just keep the previous version of the code, I 
> get "package xxx is already installed". Because when upgrading a builtin 
> package, the "current" version is not deleted.
> 
> So we need to compute the exact version to install (then package-install 
> does not say "it's already installed" because the installed version is 
> different). The use of package-install-from-archive might have been a 
> mistake, though, (in case dependencies need to be updated too) I'm 
> looking into that now.

Here's an updated patch that's a little closer to what's been there before.

> Alternatively, we could add an optional argument to package-install 
> which would mean "install the latest version anyway".