emacs-build-system installs too many files

emacs-build-system installs too many files

[Arun Isaac]

The install phase of the emacs-build-system simply copies all files to
the output directory. This ends up copying many unnecessary files such
as README, Makefile, tests, hidden files such as .gitignore,
.travis.yml, etc. MELPA package recipes, on the other hand, copy only a
subset of the files. This is provided by the :files property in their
recipe format (https://github.com/melpa/melpa#recipe-format). Quoting
from their github page:

#+BEGIN_QUOTE

:files is an optional property specifying the elisp and info files used
to build the package. Please do not override this if the default value
(below) is adequate, which it should usually be:

  ("*.el" "*.el.in" "dir"
   "*.info" "*.texi" "*.texinfo"
   "doc/dir" "doc/*.info" "doc/*.texi" "doc/*.texinfo"
   (:exclude ".dir-locals.el" "test.el" "tests.el" "*-test.el" "*-tests.el"))

This option is necessary when there are multiple packages in the
repository and thus the package should only be built from a subset of
.el files. For example, elisp test files should not normally be
packaged. Any file specified at any path in the repository is copied to
the root of the package.

...

Note that elisp in subdirectories is never included by default, so you
might find it convenient to separate auxiliiary files such as tests into
subdirectories to keep packaging simple.

#+END_QUOTE

I suggest we modify the emacs-build-system to include a #:files argument
similar to MELPA's :files property. If others are fine with this, I will
start working on a patch.

Regards,
Arun Isaac.

Re: emacs-build-system installs too many files

[Alex Kost]

Arun Isaac (2017-04-14 14:33 +0530) wrote:

> The install phase of the emacs-build-system simply copies all files to
> the output directory. This ends up copying many unnecessary files such
> as README, Makefile, tests, hidden files such as .gitignore,
> .travis.yml, etc. MELPA package recipes, on the other hand, copy only a
> subset of the files. This is provided by the :files property in their
> recipe format (https://github.com/melpa/melpa#recipe-format). Quoting
> from their github page:
[...]
> I suggest we modify the emacs-build-system to include a #:files argument
> similar to MELPA's :files property. If others are fine with this, I will
> start working on a patch.

I totally agree!  I suggested to remove non-"el[c]" files when Federico
introduced the emacs-build-system.  I mentioned it here:

  http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2015-07/msg00301.html

and a couple of times later :-) But I didn't do anything to implement
this idea, and I think it would be really great if you will give it a
try.  Thank you!

-- 
Alex

Re: emacs-build-system installs too many files

[Arun Isaac]

> I think it would be really great if you will give it a try.

I have a work in progress patch implementing the ideas discussed.

https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=26559

Re: emacs-build-system installs too many files

[Arun Isaac]

> I think it would be really great if you will give it a try.

I have a work in progress patch implementing the ideas discussed.

https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=26559

Re: emacs-build-system installs too many files

[Arun Isaac]

> I have a work in progress patch implementing the ideas discussed.
>
> https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=26559

Alex Kost and I have finalized this patch, more or less. It would be
good if someone else could review it, and provide feedback so that we
can push it and close the bug report.

Thanks!

Re: emacs-build-system installs too many files

[myglc2]

On 05/14/2017 at 19:15 Arun Isaac writes:

>> I have a work in progress patch implementing the ideas discussed.
>>
>> https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=26559
>
> Alex Kost and I have finalized this patch, more or less. It would be
> good if someone else could review it, and provide feedback so that we
> can push it and close the bug report.
>
> Thanks!

Hi Arun,

I'm not qualified to review the code, but, FWIW, I used these patches to
install emacs packages I use and don't use ... and I encountered no
difficulty. ;-)

- George

Re: emacs-build-system installs too many files

[Arun Isaac]

> I used these patches to install emacs packages I use and don't use
> ... and I encountered no difficulty. ;-)

Thanks for the feedback! :-)

Once one of the Guix maintainers gives me the green light, I'll push...