From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Kevin W. van Rooijen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: What exactly does "installing a package" mean? Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2015 22:31:50 +0100 Message-ID: <87d1w15nax.fsf@attichacker.com> References: <87bnbll6b9.fsf@mbork.pl> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1445952684 25001 80.91.229.3 (27 Oct 2015 13:31:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2015 13:31:24 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Help Gnu Emacs mailing list To: Marcin Borkowski Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Oct 27 14:31:14 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Zr4LE-0007AS-35 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 27 Oct 2015 14:31:08 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:59647 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Zr4LD-0002GZ-HD for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 27 Oct 2015 09:31:07 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:44604) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZqpN7-0001xA-N2 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 26 Oct 2015 17:32:06 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZqpN2-0002sn-K6 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 26 Oct 2015 17:32:05 -0400 Original-Received: from smtprelay0031.hostedemail.com ([216.40.44.31]:48436 helo=smtprelay.hostedemail.com) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZqpN2-0002sW-F5 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 26 Oct 2015 17:32:00 -0400 Original-Received: from filter.hostedemail.com (unknown [216.40.38.60]) by smtprelay04.hostedemail.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 66E2C351F65; Mon, 26 Oct 2015 21:31:58 +0000 (UTC) X-Session-Marker: 6B6576696E2E76616E2E726F6F696A656E4061747469636861636B65722E636F6D X-HE-Tag: stop53_110f94850f109 X-Filterd-Recvd-Size: 2996 Original-Received: from localhost.localdomain (5ED241F1.cm-7-3b.dynamic.ziggo.nl [94.210.65.241]) (Authenticated sender: kevin.van.rooijen@attichacker.com) by omf05.hostedemail.com (Postfix) with ESMTPA; Mon, 26 Oct 2015 21:31:56 +0000 (UTC) User-agent: mu4e 0.9.15; emacs 24.5.1 In-reply-to: <87bnbll6b9.fsf@mbork.pl> X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 3.x X-Received-From: 216.40.44.31 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Tue, 27 Oct 2015 09:30:46 -0400 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:107834 Archived-At: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 Hi Marcin, Installing a package /usually/ refers to installing a package through the Emacs built in package manager. http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/InstallingPackages These packages get installed in the 'package-user-dir', you yourself should not have to manually modify any contents in that directory. If you want to try and clean up your package management I suggest taking a look at use-package https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package and Melpa https://github.com/milkypostman/melpa Installing a package manually would mean adding the path to your package to our load-path, and then require it manually. Though looking into Emacs' built-in package manager is worth the effort. So instead of removing them from your package-user-dir manually, try adding the packages you need through use-package and let your Emacs configurations handle it for you. Marcin Borkowski writes: > Hi all, > > do I get it correctly that "installing a package" means that Emacs > creates a certain subdirectory of `package-user-dir' and puts the > relevant file(s) there - and that's it? > > In particular, is deleting a subdirectory of `package-user-dir' enough > to uninstall the package? Is moving its subdirectory somewhere else, > restarting Emacs, then copying it back again and restarting again > equivalent to uninstalling and then installing again? > > The reason I'm asking is that I'd like to get rid of the mess I managed > to introduce in `package-user-dir', but OTOH this mess is working, and > I don't want to break something accidentally, or rather, I want to have > a simple way to rollback any changes. > > TIA, - -- Kevin W. van Rooijen @attichacker PGP 4096R: A0A9 0D06 A754 6D4E EAD4 E6B8 A006 B0B1 CD62 28AB -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQEcBAEBCgAGBQJWLpvGAAoJEHBsdeXUwRWBrbkH/i+iDB+3LxiwPsFnO5Ist30u CO7emNjxsAO+Txi/F578s5KBE9KKQ/bwXuHG6yk5BQFqlwBchPMg/3Iw+NxF24/2 SUU1xgpIdP9l8CB2zsP8Bs69SW+dzI3mtbe7GZAr/aa8xmO7IGTY9C1DZPQ80lcB ay/rDwTT+ZMUFwb8TUA+BBj5xN9wx/KtarEGFrMju+MR2FhkaKwvLCOY6QDnuHzO iw7BjaJh2KkxwWEKG5WOHFSkhm0zv+5wHR+1I6ZQgEautUjhSXK0mGO79PuFhvB1 cL3ezqZvGLilRs/jYiCIzKd/LDIIQ82HVz/aqgc32eAQSX6WUXvm+bB8kg96+1U= =0tIe -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----