How does ELPA work?

How does ELPA work?

[joakim]

I would like, as an example, for Jan Morringens very useful d-bus proxy
library to be available through ELPA if not in the core.

How can I help make that happen? I haven't been able to figure out how
the GNU ELPA repo works. There is supposed to be a bzr branch somewhere
right? Do I have access to that as an Emacs comitter? Can Jan be given
that access?


-- 
Joakim Verona

Re: How does ELPA work?

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Wed, 02 Mar 2011 10:30:32 +0100 joakim@verona.se wrote: 

j> I would like, as an example, for Jan Morringens very useful d-bus proxy
j> library to be available through ELPA if not in the core.

j> How can I help make that happen? I haven't been able to figure out how
j> the GNU ELPA repo works. There is supposed to be a bzr branch somewhere
j> right? Do I have access to that as an Emacs comitter? Can Jan be given
j> that access?

Chong Yidong has been handling the copyright assignments.

The GNU ELPA is in the elpa branch, accessible as
bzr://bzr.savannah.gnu.org/emacs/elpa/ and AFAIK without any special
permissions compared to the Emacs trunk.  But deploying from that branch
to elpa.gnu.org is a semi-manual process.  See admin/package-update.sh
in the elpa branch for details on what actually happens, it's pretty
simple..

Assuming the assignment is in order, either I or one of the maintainers
can do the deployment.

Ted

Re: How does ELPA work?

[Michael Albinus]

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

> On Wed, 02 Mar 2011 10:30:32 +0100 joakim@verona.se wrote: 
>
> j> I would like, as an example, for Jan Morringens very useful d-bus proxy
> j> library to be available through ELPA if not in the core.
>
> j> How can I help make that happen? I haven't been able to figure out how
> j> the GNU ELPA repo works. There is supposed to be a bzr branch somewhere
> j> right? Do I have access to that as an Emacs comitter? Can Jan be given
> j> that access?
>
> Chong Yidong has been handling the copyright assignments.
>
> The GNU ELPA is in the elpa branch, accessible as
> bzr://bzr.savannah.gnu.org/emacs/elpa/ and AFAIK without any special
> permissions compared to the Emacs trunk.  But deploying from that branch
> to elpa.gnu.org is a semi-manual process.  See admin/package-update.sh
> in the elpa branch for details on what actually happens, it's pretty
> simple..
>
> Assuming the assignment is in order, either I or one of the maintainers
> can do the deployment.

I have the same question. I intend to upload debbugs.el to elpa. From
the descriptions, I do not understand how I shall do it. Does there
exist a small blurb for elpa contributors? This shouldn't include the
upload procedure only, but also some instructions how to organize the
package (files with version in theie name? directories with version in
their name? readme? what else?)

> Ted

Thanks, and best regards, Michael.

Re: How does ELPA work?

[Chong Yidong]

Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de> writes:

>> Assuming the assignment is in order, either I or one of the maintainers
>> can do the deployment.
>
> I have the same question. I intend to upload debbugs.el to elpa. From
> the descriptions, I do not understand how I shall do it. Does there
> exist a small blurb for elpa contributors? This shouldn't include the
> upload procedure only, but also some instructions how to organize the
> package (files with version in theie name? directories with version in
> their name? readme? what else?)

There is a description of how to make Emacs packages in the Lisp manual,
in the "Packaging" node.  That should get you started.  Once you have
created a package file, you can test installing it with M-x
package-install-file RET.

To make it available on elpa.gnu.org, you currently have to ask someone
with access to the server to run the script that synches the bzr branch
on the server.  So email me or Ted Zlatanov.

We should make it easier for Emacs hackers to deploy a "private" copy of
the package archive.  The instructions of how to do this are not as
clear as they should be.  I will work on that this weekend.

(Thanks for your patience, and for being a guinea pig for using the
packaging system :-)

Re: How does ELPA work?

[Chong Yidong]

Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de> writes:

> Does there exist a small blurb for elpa contributors? This shouldn't
> include the upload procedure only, but also some instructions how to
> organize the package (files with version in theie name? directories
> with version in their name? readme? what else?)

I have done some revising of the Packaging chapter in the Lisp manual.
Take a look there and see if the explanation of how to create a package
is clear enough.

It also explains how to set up a "mini" package archive on your local
machine.  This provides a way to test installing your package from the
M-x list-packages interface, by adding the local archive to the
`package-archives' alist.

The instructions for uploading to elpa.gnu.org need a little more work.
(And we probably need more functionality in package-x.el, whose commands
currently assume you're uploading directly to a package archive, whereas
our elpa branch is a source repository from which a package archive is
generated.)

Re: How does ELPA work?

[Michael Albinus]

Chong Yidong <cyd@stupidchicken.com> writes:

> I have done some revising of the Packaging chapter in the Lisp manual.
> Take a look there and see if the explanation of how to create a package
> is clear enough.

Thanks. I've created debbugs-0.1.tar, based on this. I'll send it to you
off the list, for uploading to elpa.gnu.org.

> It also explains how to set up a "mini" package archive on your local
> machine.  This provides a way to test installing your package from the
> M-x list-packages interface, by adding the local archive to the
> `package-archives' alist.

I've tried this as well. `package-upload-file' did work fine (after
adjusting `package-archive-upload-base'). But `list-packages' failed
afterwards, see *Messages*:

Loading package...done
(("tmp" . "/tmp/") ("gnu" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/"))
Failed to download `tmp' archive.

I'll see, whether I can debug into this.

Best regards, Michael.

Re: How does ELPA work?

[Chong Yidong]

Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de> writes:

> Thanks. I've created debbugs-0.1.tar, based on this. I'll send it to
> you off the list, for uploading to elpa.gnu.org.

Uploaded (and accessible in packages/debbugs-0.1/ in the elpa branch).

> I've tried this as well. `package-upload-file' did work fine (after
> adjusting `package-archive-upload-base'). But `list-packages' failed
> afterwards, see *Messages*:
>
> Loading package...done
> (("tmp" . "/tmp/") ("gnu" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/"))
> Failed to download `tmp' archive.
>
> I'll see, whether I can debug into this.

Hmm, I can't seem to reproduce this.  Let me know if you track it down.

Try removing the condition-case in package-refresh-contents, and see if
you can get a backtrace.

Re: How does ELPA work?

[Stefan Monnier]

> Hmm, I can't seem to reproduce this.  Let me know if you track it down.

> Try removing the condition-case in package-refresh-contents, and see if
> you can get a backtrace.

An alternative is to turn it into a `condition-case-no-debug'.


        Stefan

Re: How does ELPA work?

[Michael Albinus]

Chong Yidong <cyd@stupidchicken.com> writes:

> Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de> writes:
>
>> Thanks. I've created debbugs-0.1.tar, based on this. I'll send it to
>> you off the list, for uploading to elpa.gnu.org.
>
> Uploaded (and accessible in packages/debbugs-0.1/ in the elpa branch).

Thanks. However, I haven't seen the files in the elpa branch of Emacs
24. Reading the rewritten admin/notes/elpa, it looks like I shall add
them there. Right?

>> I've tried this as well. `package-upload-file' did work fine (after
>> adjusting `package-archive-upload-base'). But `list-packages' failed
>> afterwards, see *Messages*:
>>
>> Loading package...done
>> (("tmp" . "/tmp/") ("gnu" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/"))
>> Failed to download `tmp' archive.
>>
>> I'll see, whether I can debug into this.
>
> Hmm, I can't seem to reproduce this.  Let me know if you track it down.
>
> Try removing the condition-case in package-refresh-contents, and see if
> you can get a backtrace.

First, package-upload-file fails if the tar file is remote. I've fixed
this in package.el and simple.el (I had to make shell-command-to-string
aware of remote default-directory).

Afterwards, uploading works, but it does not extract my tar file. I do
not know whether it shall be extracted by default, so I have done it
manually. Likely this was the origin of my problem, because now I can
install the package from the local archive.

Best regards, Michael.

Re: How does ELPA work?

[Chong Yidong]

Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de> writes:

>> Uploaded (and accessible in packages/debbugs-0.1/ in the elpa branch).
>
> Thanks. However, I haven't seen the files in the elpa branch of Emacs
> 24. Reading the rewritten admin/notes/elpa, it looks like I shall add
> them there. Right?

They are there.  Maybe your copy of the branch is not up to date?

Maybe you tried to do `bzr update', but did not bind your branch (in
which case you should have done `bzr pull' to pull in changes)?

> First, package-upload-file fails if the tar file is remote. I've fixed
> this in package.el and simple.el (I had to make shell-command-to-string
> aware of remote default-directory).

Thanks.

> Afterwards, uploading works, but it does not extract my tar file. I do
> not know whether it shall be extracted by default, so I have done it
> manually. Likely this was the origin of my problem, because now I can
> install the package from the local archive.

package-upload-file does not extract the tar file, because it's used to
deploy a package directly into a package archive, to be downloaded by
users.

The elpa bzr branch works a bit differently.  There we keep the packages
in extracted (source) form, because the elpa branch does not itself
function as a package archive.  Instead, we run a script to deploy the
package archive from it.

Re: How does ELPA work?

[Chong Yidong]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> Hmm, I can't seem to reproduce this.  Let me know if you track it down.
>
>> Try removing the condition-case in package-refresh-contents, and see if
>> you can get a backtrace.
>
> An alternative is to turn it into a `condition-case-no-debug'.

Good idea; I've done that.

Re: How does ELPA work?

[Michael Albinus]

Chong Yidong <cyd@stupidchicken.com> writes:

>> Thanks. However, I haven't seen the files in the elpa branch of Emacs
>> 24. Reading the rewritten admin/notes/elpa, it looks like I shall add
>> them there. Right?
>
> They are there.  Maybe your copy of the branch is not up to date?
>
> Maybe you tried to do `bzr update', but did not bind your branch (in
> which case you should have done `bzr pull' to pull in changes)?

That's it, yes. You see, I'm an occasional bzr user only ...

> The elpa bzr branch works a bit differently.  There we keep the packages
> in extracted (source) form, because the elpa branch does not itself
> function as a package archive.  Instead, we run a script to deploy the
> package archive from it.

Is it correct to continue updating this branch from now on? If yes,
where shall I document changes? ChangeLog in packages/debbugs-0.1?

Or shall I send a new tar file?

Best regards, Michael.

Re: How does ELPA work?

[Chong Yidong]

Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de> writes:

>> The elpa bzr branch works a bit differently.  There we keep the packages
>> in extracted (source) form, because the elpa branch does not itself
>> function as a package archive.  Instead, we run a script to deploy the
>> package archive from it.
>
> Is it correct to continue updating this branch from now on?

Yes.  Just make the changes directly in debbugs-0.1.  For now, it's OK
for the contents of packages in the archive to be mutable, instead of
requiring a new package version for each change.  We can revisit this as
Emacs 24 gets closer to release.

> If yes, where shall I document changes? ChangeLog in
> packages/debbugs-0.1?

We don't have a chagelog policy on the elpa branch, so it is OK to use
just bzr commit logs if you like.  If you personally want to add a
ChangeLog or maintain a log in in debbugs.el, feel free.

Re: How does ELPA work?

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:34:44 -0500 Chong Yidong <cyd@stupidchicken.com> wrote: 

>> If yes, where shall I document changes? ChangeLog in
>> packages/debbugs-0.1?

CY> We don't have a chagelog policy on the elpa branch, so it is OK to use
CY> just bzr commit logs if you like.  If you personally want to add a
CY> ChangeLog or maintain a log in in debbugs.el, feel free.

Is there an equivalent of `C-x 4 a' for the VC log?  I find it really
convenient to annotate my changes in the ChangeLog format, even if the
actual text goes in the VC log instead of a ChangeLog file.

Ted

Re: How does ELPA work?

[Michael Albinus]

Chong Yidong <cyd@stupidchicken.com> writes:

>> If yes, where shall I document changes? ChangeLog in
>> packages/debbugs-0.1?
>
> We don't have a chagelog policy on the elpa branch, so it is OK to use
> just bzr commit logs if you like.  If you personally want to add a
> ChangeLog or maintain a log in in debbugs.el, feel free.

Likely, I will add a ChangeLog. I do expect also contributions from
Evgeny Zubok (he is finishing his paperwork with the FSF), who has no
write access to the Emacs repository. This would simplify my life
committing his patches :-)

Thanks for all your support, and best regards, Michael.