Re: Runtime package dependencies and compilation order

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> From my understanding specifying package B as dependency solves such
> issues, as package manager installs B before A. So the only solution I see
> in such situation is to create package A-base, A-B (B-related functionality
> that has two packages as dependency - A-base and B) and A-C (similar to
> A-B).

Without knowing more of the details (and taking as a given that you're
not interested in extending the ELPA infrastructure to support
disjunction in dependencies), I think your solution is indeed about as
good as it gets.

There is a hackish alternative, where you provide an B-C (meta) package,
with two *versions* (one that depends on B and the other that depends on
C), but ELPA generally presumes that there's only one interesting
version (the latest), so it'll probably be cumbersome to use.

But there's no reason to take ELPA as something that's cast in stone.
So I recommend you file a bug-report asking for better support for your
use-case.


        Stefan