Ah okay, I see.

So I assume that this means that as a function 'define-package' was
redundant, but we should still include a 'define-package' in the
-pkg.el file of a multi file package?

The initial comment of 'package.el' mentions that the -pkg.el file
should consist of 'a call to' define-package. I would say this
formulation is somewhat confusing/misleading then?

Or is the -pkg.el file just outdated? And did I miss the news about it?

On Mon, 20 Mar 2023 at 20:32, Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net> wrote:

> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
>
> >> From: dalanicolai <dalanicolai@gmail.com>
> >> Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2023 17:21:04 +0100
> >>
> >> Can I ask why 'define-package' was marked obsolete?
> >
> > It never did anything useful.  Its original implementation just
> > signaled an error.
>
> I just looked up the definition from when package.el was merged[0], and it
> did stuff, mainly modifying `package-alist'.
>
> [0]
> https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/tree/lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el?id=44198b6ee97bcb0ac88a5cadd1bf9b62048d0156#n513
>
> --
> Philip Kaludercic
>