Re: package-vc support for :files keyword

[Tony Zorman <tonyzorman@mailbox.org>]

On Mon, Sep 18 2023 15:52, Philip Kaludercic wrote:
>> I think that
>>
>>   $ rm foo.el
>>   $ git update-index --assume-unchanged foo.el
>>
>> should work. It should merge cleanly (I've tried this out just now, and
>> it worked, but I may have overlooked something). If it's part of the
>> package description, then updating should work out of the box, since
>> package-vc-upgrade also calls package-vc--unpack-1, which would execute
>> the respective :early-shell-command again.
>
> Being a git-specific command, this shouldn't be added to package-vc
> directly.  If there is a VCS agnostic/generalisable way of doing this,
> then it could be added to VC.

Ah, sometimes I forget that there are VCs other than Git—sorry :)

> But for now, if I understand you correctly, you are suggesting that
> users give package specifications like this:
>
> (foo :url "https://some.vcs/repository"
>      ;; ...
>      :early-shell-command "rm [all the files]; git update-index --assume-unchanged [all the files]")
>
> where [all the files] might change between updates.

Yes, exactly.

> At this point I continue to question the utility of emulating
> MELPA-style :files attributes, unless there are concrete usability
> issues.
>
> For the record, these are all the repositories in {Non,}GNU ELPA that
> develop multiple packages in a single repository:
>
> [… 12 lines elided …]
>
> From what I understand, there is no technical necessity for this mode of
> development?  I wonder how difficult it would be to push for a
> one-package-one-repo approach.

This is not just for multiple packages in a single repository—at least
one has to somewhat broaden what "multiple packages" means. Some
packages include small shims for bigger projects, and inadvertently
require them as dependencies. The original issue[1] on the
vc-use-package repo mentions org-ql[2], more specifically its helm
integration in the form of helm-org-ql.el. Some people might not want to
pull down helm as a dependency just for one file that they are not going
to use anyways.

I'm not sure how common of a situation this actually is, but at least
for the big completion frameworks—helm and ivy—it's not totally unheard
of.

[1]: https://github.com/slotThe/vc-use-package/issues/12
[2]: https://github.com/alphapapa/org-ql/

-- 
Tony Zorman | https://tony-zorman.com/