Distributing binaries within Emacs packages

Distributing binaries within Emacs packages

[Jackson Benete]

Hello there,

I was chatting on r/emacs about a package I'm writing and some other
projects I have.

I was asking about the possibility on writing a common lisp software, and
compiling it to call inside emacs instead of calling shell to use OS tools
to do the job*, since those tools are not normally cross-OS available, I
could compile the common lisp tool for multiple platforms and distribute it
with the package.

The guy suggested to me to clarify the question with you by mail, because
he thinks that it's not possible to distribute binaries within packages
with the emacs package system.

Is it possible to distribute the package with those binaries? Or the only
way to do that is to share for people to clone it inside ".emacs.d/"
manually?

Thanks for your time!

Jackson Benete


*E.g. one of the packages aims to work with cryptography. Emacs have some
cryptography functions but it accepts only strings and buffers as objects,
but I need to use files as objects. I thought I could write something using
cl-ironclad and ship it within the package.

Re: Distributing binaries within Emacs packages

[Stefan Monnier]

> Is it possible to distribute the package with those binaries?

The answer is yes.  As for how, well that depends on the specifics.


        Stefan

Re: Distributing binaries within Emacs packages

[Jean Louis]

* Jackson Benete <jacksonbenete@gmail.com> [2020-12-14 02:20]:
> Hello there,
> 
> I was chatting on r/emacs about a package I'm writing and some other
> projects I have.
> 
> I was asking about the possibility on writing a common lisp software, and
> compiling it to call inside emacs instead of calling shell to use OS tools
> to do the job*, since those tools are not normally cross-OS available, I
> could compile the common lisp tool for multiple platforms and distribute it
> with the package.

Is that free software or proprietary? It was not said that I have
seen.

If it would be proprietary software, and requires Emacs to run such
and cannot run standalone, that would be violation of GPL in my
opinion and such software, if I remember well, becomes automatically
GPL 3+ licensed just as Emacs as it is derivative work if there are
clear dependencies.

This probably does not apply to your case. Does it use any Emacs
functions or Emacs as interface?

Do you use Emacs to run that software? Probably, I think.

Without having enough information to me that would seem as derivative
and thus the bundled binary has to be GPL 3+ licensed as Emacs with
sources provided somewhere.

> The guy suggested to me to clarify the question with you by mail, because
> he thinks that it's not possible to distribute binaries within packages
> with the emacs package system.

Maybe it is not common but you are free to distribute binaries within
packages for Emacs package system. Licensing is the issue, I hope it
is free software. Then all is solved. Sources you may provide
elsewhere and hyperlink to it.

> *E.g. one of the packages aims to work with cryptography. Emacs have some
> cryptography functions but it accepts only strings and buffers as objects,
> but I need to use files as objects. I thought I could write something using
> cl-ironclad and ship it within the package.

You are free to do so.

But it has to be GPL 3+ compatible. ironclad is alright. What about
your software, is it free?

Jean