Re: ELPA contributions?

[phillip.lord@russet.org.uk (Phillip Lord)]

Artur Malabarba <bruce.connor.am@gmail.com> writes:
>> and the README just contains the technical details of uploading
>> material to ELPA (it's not really clear when to choose an external
>> branch).
>
> Yes, that needs to be clarified too. The idea is to just use a subtree,
> unless you _know_ you want an external branch for some reason.


Well, here is the interesting bit. As far as I can tell, a subtree IS an
external (sort of). AFAICT, for instance, "ack" is a subtree (which I
think means, it has been added by the "git subtree" command, although I
don't know how to test this), while "auctex" is a :external. But both
are identified in externals-list. While ace-window is neither.

All fairly confusing really. I've been using :external branches for my
packages, but I think possibly I should have been using subtrees. I used
to not use externals at all (i.e. neither an :external or :subtree), but
that didn't work.

The MELPA process (i.e. submit a recipe) is much more straight-forward.

Still, having said all of this, I have a workflow which works using
:external branches, and which works whether or not you have commit
access to the "main" repository. I'll try and write this up at some
point. I'd love someone to do the same for subtrees, so I can see
whether that would have been the right way to go in the first place.

Phil