bug#68317: Can't sort *Packages* buffer by version after installing with package-vc

[Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net>]

Joseph Turner <joseph@breatheoutbreathe.in> writes:

> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
>
>>> From: Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net>
>>> Cc: joseph@breatheoutbreathe.in,  68317@debbugs.gnu.org
>>> Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2024 20:19:15 +0000
>>>
>>> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
>>>
>>> >> From: Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net>
>>> >> Cc: Joseph Turner <joseph@breatheoutbreathe.in>,  68317@debbugs.gnu.org
>>> >> Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2024 19:25:44 +0000
>>> >>
>>> >> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
>>> >>
>>> >> >> version-to-list: Invalid version syntax: ‘c99367ebc2f0afe0baaf2f5e5ca1ad9d62ba6e21’ (must start with a number)
>>> >> >
>>> >> > Sounds like package-vc-commit should be modified to produce a valid
>>> >> > version string (which SHA1 is not)?  Philip?
>>> >>
>>> >> We can also adjust `package-menu--version-predicate' to handle
>>> >> non-version numbers, which I think would be more robust.
>>> >
>>> > Fine by me, but can this be done safely enough for emacs-29?
>>>
>>> This would be a simple implementation, I don't know if it is safe enough
>>> for you:
>>
>> Looks safe enough, thanks.
>
> With this solution, when sorting by version, packages at version 0.0.0
> are interleaved with packages whose version string is a hash, such as:
>
>   breadcrumb                     c99367ebc2f0afe0baaf2f5e5ca1ad9d62ba6e21 source                No description available.
>   chordpro-mode                  a63fc0b7181299befc4496cba04e0f84d5953000 source                No description available.
>   consult-emms                   407edec0f2a997e32cb1bbeff811f73b6fac42ac source                No description available.
>   denote                         5e9b6b3bf0a81e00b0db0071f0c06a889f7e4a71 source                No description available.
>   disable-mouse                  0.0.0          external              Disable mouse commands globally
>   emacsql                        0.0.0          external              High-level SQL database front-end
>   hl-todo                        0.0.0          external              Highlight TODO and similar keywords
>   hyperdrive                     2930992446f508a7716b1e52a6aaf824d3f152d9 source                No description available.
>   jabber                         6900d9e085bbb2ef35b731c661fe54fa88422d6a source                No description available.
>   ledger-mode                    0.0.0          external              Helper code for use with the "ledger" command-line tool
>   lisp                           unknown        source                No description available.
>   macrostep                      0.0.0          external              Interactive macro expander
>
> While this is a little bit awkward, it's certainly better than an error.
>
> Thank you for the quick fix!

I agree it is not ideal, I can take a look at it again after emacs-29 is
cut.  But for now I'll mark the bug report as resolved.

> Joseph