bug#31397: 27.0.50; Emacs doesn't call package-initialize if there's no elpa directory

[Noam Postavsky <npostavs@gmail.com>]

Zachary Kanfer <zkanfer@gmail.com> writes:

> I like my init file to completely set up Emacs: I want to be able to
> start with an empty ~/.emacs.d/ move my init file into it, and start up
> Emacs.
[...]
> I've read up on the early init file. My understanding is that users
> should no longer call #'package-initialize in their init files. This is
> supported by, if I do have a call to #'package-initialize, starting
> Emacs gives me a warning "Warning (package): Unnecessary call to
> ‘package-initialize’ in init file". So I figured I would remove it. But
> I quickly ran into a problem, or at least an area for better
> documentation.
[...]
> A minimal init file that shows my problem is here:
>
>     (require 'package)
>     (add-to-list 'package-archives
>                  '("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/"))
>
>     (message "use-package is installed: %s" (package-installed-p 'use-package))
>
> Here's how I delete the elpa directory, and then start up Emacs:
>
>     $ rm -r ~/.emacs.d/elpa
>     $ src/emacs
>
> Upon doing so, here's the error I get:
>
>     Warning (initialization): An error occurred while loading
> ‘/home/zck/.emacs.d/init.el’:
>
>     error: package.el is not yet initialized!


> Anything I can do to help narrow this down? I'm not sure what to do to make this work.

Perhaps adding Radon to Cc will help, not sure if they're subscribed to
the bug list.