Re: package.el: bytecode portability across emacs versions

[Michael Olson <mwolson@gnu.org>]

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David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:

> Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:
>
>>     I know that sharing bytecode is bad.  I just didn't know what to do
>>     about it.
>>
>> You could put the bytecode in
>> /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, which is a standard element
>> of load-path, version-specific.  The source code could go in
>> /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp.  If package.el finds the source
>> code and not the binary, it can compile for the current Emacs version.
>
> Emacs is not well-equipped to have source and byte code in different
> directories.  For example, it messes with the load path order: Emacs
> will prefer loading an .el file in an earlier place in the load-path
> over a .elc file in a later place.
>
> It also stops byte-recompile-directory from working and makes
> list-load-path-shadow complain.
>
> I don't say that such a system could not be supported, but it would
> need code changes outside of package.el itself.

If you put symlinks to the source files in the same directory as the
byte-compiled files (or just copy them there), and don't include the
version-independent directory in load-path, there is no problem (to the
best of my knowledge).  I'm trying to get something to this effect added
to the Debian Emacs packaging policy, but the policy-makers are rather
slow.

-- 
       Michael Olson -- FSF Associate Member #652     |
 http://mwolson.org/ -- Jabber: mwolson_at_hcoop.net  |  /` |\ | | |
            Sysadmin -- Hobbies: Lisp, GP2X, HCoop    | |_] | \| |_|
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