bug#20836: 25.0.50; package.el doesn't delete old versions anymore

[Tassilo Horn <tsdh@gnu.org>]

Artur Malabarba <bruce.connor.am@gmail.com> writes:

>> As said, no errors during install and delete.  Or at least I haven't
>> been put into the debugger with debug-on-error and neither has something
>> with "error" in it been printed in *Messages*.  So unless there's
>> nothing in package.el handling or ignoring the error...
>
> If the error heppened during deletion it will be messaged somewhat
> discretely. It's not even guaranteed that there will be the word
> "error" in the message. So look carefully.
>
> I'm changing the error reporting now to be a little more informative.

Ok, with emacs dbc192b4c239c2da8c83def0b0a877d7f179172a I get the output
below when upgrading three packages.  I can't spot any messages that
look like errors during deletion.  Oh well, I can't spot any messages
about deletion at all!

After `U x', the bottom of the packages buffer shows:

  cider              20150616.1226 obsolete              Clojure Interactive Development Environment that Rocks
  company            20150616.439  obsolete              Modular text completion framework
D helm               20150616.539  obsolete              Helm is an Emacs incremental and narrowing framework
  helm               20150617.545  obsolete              Helm is an Emacs incremental and narrowing framework
  highlight-symbol   20150430.1552 obsolete              automatic and manual symbol highlighting

So even after `x'-ecution of the upgrade, there's still an operation
left which will delete one of multiple obsolete helm versions?  Well,
indeed, another `x' deletes the marked version but that's the version
that is even older, e.g., the current upgrade actually obsoleted the
helm version 20150617.545.  The version 20150616.539 was already
obsolete yesterday.

That looks like if package.el would try to keep one "backup version"
while marking older versions for deletion, thus a user has to do `U x'
and then another `x' for upgrading and deleting old non-backup versions.
I never did the second `x' because it hasn't been needed previously.

Well, that theory might be completely wrong but it matches what's
displayed in *Packages* and what's contained in ~/.emacs.d/elpa/.  And
it would also make sense because it would allow users to easily revert
to the last working version of a package in case of a breakage... (If a
second `x' should be required is a matter of opinion.)

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
Importing package-keyring.gpg...done
Package refresh done
3 packages can be upgraded; type `U' to mark them for upgrading.
error in process filter: peculiar error: 404 [2 times]
3 packages marked for upgrading.
Upgrade these 3 packages (helm-20150617.2144, highlight-symbol-20150617.1500, company-20150617.1350)? (y or n) y
Package menu: Operation started [Upgrading 3]
Contacting host: melpa.org:80 [2 times]
Parsing tar file...done
Extracting company-20150617.1350/
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-eclim.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-eclim.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-gtags.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-gtags.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-semantic.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-semantic.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-cmake.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-cmake.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-oddmuse.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-oddmuse.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-pkg.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-pkg.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-css.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-css.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-etags.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-etags.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-template.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-template.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-dabbrev-code.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-dabbrev-code.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-tempo.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-tempo.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-dabbrev.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-dabbrev.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-files.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-files.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-clang.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-clang.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-keywords.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-keywords.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-capf.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-capf.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-bbdb.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-bbdb.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-nxml.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-nxml.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-yasnippet.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-yasnippet.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-xcode.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-xcode.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-abbrev.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-abbrev.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-ispell.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-ispell.el
Extracting company-20150617.1350/company-elisp.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-elisp.el
Making version-control local to company-autoloads.el while let-bound!
Generating autoloads for company-abbrev.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-bbdb.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-capf.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-clang.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-cmake.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-css.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-dabbrev-code.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-dabbrev.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-eclim.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-elisp.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-etags.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-files.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-gtags.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-ispell.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-keywords.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-nxml.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-oddmuse.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-pkg.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-semantic.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-template.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-tempo.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-xcode.el...done
Generating autoloads for company-yasnippet.el...done
Generating autoloads for company.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-autoloads.el
Saving file /home/horn/.gnus.d/.newsrc-dribble...
Wrote /home/horn/.gnus.d/.newsrc-dribble [2 times]
(Saved .newsrc-dribble)
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-abbrev.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-abbrev.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350... [2 times]
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-bbdb.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-bbdb.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-capf.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-capf.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-clang.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-clang.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-cmake.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-cmake.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-css.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-css.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-dabbrev-code.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-dabbrev-code.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-dabbrev.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-dabbrev.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-eclim.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-eclim.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-elisp.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-elisp.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-etags.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-etags.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-files.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-files.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-gtags.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-gtags.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-ispell.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-ispell.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-keywords.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-keywords.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-nxml.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-nxml.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-oddmuse.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-oddmuse.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350... [2 times]
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-semantic.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-semantic.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-template.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-template.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-tempo.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-tempo.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-xcode.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-xcode.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-yasnippet.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company-yasnippet.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350/company.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/company-20150617.1350...
Done (Total of 23 files compiled, 2 skipped)
Contacting host: melpa.org:80
Generating autoloads for highlight-symbol.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/highlight-symbol-20150617.1500/highlight-symbol-autoloads.el
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/highlight-symbol-20150617.1500... [3 times]
Compiling /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/highlight-symbol-20150617.1500/highlight-symbol.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/highlight-symbol-20150617.1500/highlight-symbol.elc
Checking /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/highlight-symbol-20150617.1500...
Done (Total of 1 file compiled, 2 skipped)
Contacting host: melpa.org:80
Parsing tar file...done
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-mode.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-mode.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-ring.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-ring.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-help.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-help.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-external.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-external.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-locate.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-locate.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-elscreen.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-elscreen.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-utils.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-utils.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-command.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-command.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-elisp-package.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-elisp-package.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-easymenu.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-easymenu.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-tags.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-tags.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-aliases.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-aliases.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-eshell.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-eshell.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-font.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-font.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-info.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-info.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-plugin.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-plugin.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-imenu.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-imenu.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-semantic.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-semantic.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-buffers.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-buffers.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-id-utils.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-id-utils.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-match-plugin.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-match-plugin.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-apt.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-apt.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-sys.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-sys.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-dabbrev.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-dabbrev.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-files.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-files.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-pkg.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-pkg.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-misc.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-misc.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-adaptive.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-adaptive.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-eval.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-eval.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-man.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-man.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/emacs-helm.sh
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/emacs-helm.sh
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-regexp.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-regexp.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-net.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-net.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-color.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-color.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-elisp.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-elisp.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-config.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-config.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-bookmark.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-bookmark.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-source.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-source.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-grep.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-grep.el
Extracting helm-20150617.2144/helm-org.el
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-org.el
Generating autoloads for helm-adaptive.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-aliases.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-apt.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-bookmark.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-buffers.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-color.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-command.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-config.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-dabbrev.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-easymenu.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-elisp-package.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-elisp.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-elscreen.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-eshell.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-eval.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-external.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-files.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-font.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-grep.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-help.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-id-utils.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-imenu.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-info.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-locate.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-man.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-match-plugin.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-misc.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-mode.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-net.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-org.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-pkg.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-plugin.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-regexp.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-ring.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-semantic.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-source.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-sys.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-tags.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm-utils.el...done
Generating autoloads for helm.el...done
Wrote /home/horn/.emacs.d/elpa/helm-20150617.2144/helm-autoloads.el
Loading async-bytecomp...done
Loading async...done
Package menu: Operation finished [Upgraded 3]
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---