shipping elisp for notmuch in elpa-notmuch debian package

shipping elisp for notmuch in elpa-notmuch debian package

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

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Hi Notmuch folks--

In the course of trying to figure out the dh_missing warnings, I've been
looking into what we ship in debian in the elpa-notmuch package.

Dubious files
-------------

elpa-notmuch currently ships a few files in
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/elpa-src/notmuch-*/ that i'm not convinced we
actually want to ship in the distributed package.

Those are:

    rstdoc.el
    make-deps.el
    dir

Do we need any of the above in the elpa-notmuch package?

info files
----------

The package also ships a bunch of *.info files in that elpa
module-specific directory, rather than shipping them in the typical
/usr/share/info/ location.  These info files appear to be translations
of the manpages or other basic notmuch documentation.  Is there a reason
to ship them in the elpa-specific directory?

notmuch-pkg.el
--------------

I note that notmuch-pkg.el is installed in elpa-notmuch, but it is *not*
in /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp when installed via the standard "make
install".  i don't know enough about how that installation is supposed
to work, but if it's supposed to drop in a notmuch-pkg.el, then
something needs fixing in the baseline "make install".


Regards,

        --dkg

(note: i've also i've filed #946142 against dh_elpa because it seems to
be one of the dh_missing culprits, by not recording what it ships in a
way that dh-missing can see it)

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Re: shipping elisp for notmuch in elpa-notmuch debian package

[David Bremner]

Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net> writes:

> Hi Notmuch folks--
>
> In the course of trying to figure out the dh_missing warnings, I've been
> looking into what we ship in debian in the elpa-notmuch package.
>
> Dubious files
> -------------
>
> elpa-notmuch currently ships a few files in
> /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/elpa-src/notmuch-*/ that i'm not convinced we
> actually want to ship in the distributed package.
>
> Those are:
>
>     rstdoc.el
>     make-deps.el
>     dir

the first two are build tools. The latter is needed by the info files.

>
> Do we need any of the above in the elpa-notmuch package?
>
> info files
> ----------
>
> The package also ships a bunch of *.info files in that elpa
> module-specific directory, rather than shipping them in the typical
> /usr/share/info/ location.  These info files appear to be translations
> of the manpages or other basic notmuch documentation.  Is there a reason
> to ship them in the elpa-specific directory?
>

It makes the elpa (make elpa) package self contained (with docs).
package.el knows how to install info files, so the debian-specific
tooling is not needed.

> notmuch-pkg.el
> --------------
>
> I note that notmuch-pkg.el is installed in elpa-notmuch, but it is *not*
> in /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp when installed via the standard "make
> install".  i don't know enough about how that installation is supposed
> to work, but if it's supposed to drop in a notmuch-pkg.el, then
> something needs fixing in the baseline "make install".

It's metadata for the elpa (package.el) package. Not sure it is helpful
in the standard install, but I don't really use the standard install, so
I'm open to ideas

Re: shipping elisp for notmuch in elpa-notmuch debian package

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

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On Wed 2019-12-04 08:53:14 -0400, David Bremner wrote:
> Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net> writes:
>>     rstdoc.el
>>     make-deps.el
>>     dir
>
> the first two are build tools. 

if they're build tools then we don't need to ship them with
elpa-notmuch, right?

> The latter is needed by the info files.

needed how?  what functionality is missing?  with the current
elpa-notmuch installed, if i do "M-x info" i see a bunch of notmuch
entries that show up under a big "Miscellaneous" heading, which appears
to be the contents of this /dir file.  If the purpose of it is just
filing it under "Miscellaneous" that doesn't seem like much of a filing
operation :P

>> The package also ships a bunch of *.info files in that elpa
>> module-specific directory, rather than shipping them in the typical
>> /usr/share/info/ location.  These info files appear to be translations
>> of the manpages or other basic notmuch documentation.  Is there a reason
>> to ship them in the elpa-specific directory?
>
> It makes the elpa (make elpa) package self contained (with docs).
> package.el knows how to install info files, so the debian-specific
> tooling is not needed.

sure, but if i "info notmuch" right now in debian, even with
elpa-notmuch installed, i just get info redisplaying the notmuch(1)
manpage, rather than rendering the info file which exists.  Is that the
goal?

>> I note that notmuch-pkg.el is installed in elpa-notmuch, but it is *not*
>> in /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp when installed via the standard "make
>> install".  i don't know enough about how that installation is supposed
>> to work, but if it's supposed to drop in a notmuch-pkg.el, then
>> something needs fixing in the baseline "make install".
>
> It's metadata for the elpa (package.el) package. Not sure it is helpful
> in the standard install, but I don't really use the standard install, so
> I'm open to ideas

OK, i'm obviously used to using the elpa package too, so i don't know
how this would affect the "standard install", so i'm happy to drop this
point of my questioning unless someone who uses the standard install
wants to speak up.

   --dkg

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Re: shipping elisp for notmuch in elpa-notmuch debian package

[David Bremner]

Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net> writes:

> On Wed 2019-12-04 08:53:14 -0400, David Bremner wrote:
>> Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net> writes:
>>>     rstdoc.el
>>>     make-deps.el
>>>     dir
>>
>> the first two are build tools. 
>
> if they're build tools then we don't need to ship them with
> elpa-notmuch, right?

Correct.

>
>> The latter is needed by the info files.
>
> needed how?  what functionality is missing?  with the current
> elpa-notmuch installed, if i do "M-x info" i see a bunch of notmuch
> entries that show up under a big "Miscellaneous" heading, which appears
> to be the contents of this /dir file.  If the purpose of it is just
> filing it under "Miscellaneous" that doesn't seem like much of a filing
> operation :P

iirc, it's needed to have them show up at all. Quite possibly the
contents of 'dir' could be improved.

>>> The package also ships a bunch of *.info files in that elpa
>>> module-specific directory, rather than shipping them in the typical
>>> /usr/share/info/ location.  These info files appear to be translations
>>> of the manpages or other basic notmuch documentation.  Is there a reason
>>> to ship them in the elpa-specific directory?
>>
>> It makes the elpa (make elpa) package self contained (with docs).
>> package.el knows how to install info files, so the debian-specific
>> tooling is not needed.
>
> sure, but if i "info notmuch" right now in debian, even with
> elpa-notmuch installed, i just get info redisplaying the notmuch(1)
> manpage, rather than rendering the info file which exists.  Is that the
> goal?

no. the standalone info reader is a weakness of this approach, since it
only looks in /usr/share/info.

It depends who you care about more, non-debian users of the elpa
package, or users of the standalone info reader. I'm not either...

Re: shipping elisp for notmuch in elpa-notmuch debian package

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

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On Wed 2019-12-04 15:29:24 -0400, David Bremner wrote:
> no. the standalone info reader is a weakness of this approach, since it
> only looks in /usr/share/info.

So i did a dumb search for other .info pages on a reasonably well-used
modern system:

    dpkg -S .info | grep -v ': /usr/share/info' | grep -v version.info$ | sort

the only actual info files here aside from the ones installed by
elpa-notmuch were:

binutils-arm-none-eabi: /usr/share/doc/binutils-arm-none-eabi/info/as.info.gz
binutils-arm-none-eabi: /usr/share/doc/binutils-arm-none-eabi/info/bfd.info.gz
binutils-arm-none-eabi: /usr/share/doc/binutils-arm-none-eabi/info/binutils.info.gz
binutils-arm-none-eabi: /usr/share/doc/binutils-arm-none-eabi/info/gprof.info.gz
binutils-arm-none-eabi: /usr/share/doc/binutils-arm-none-eabi/info/ld.info.gz

The set above are proper info files, but they are cross-building
toolchain, so it makes sense to me that they wouldn't be directly
available under "info as" or "info ld".

gcc-arm-none-eabi: /usr/share/doc/gcc-arm-none-eabi/info/cpp.info
gcc-arm-none-eabi: /usr/share/doc/gcc-arm-none-eabi/info/cppinternals.info
gcc-arm-none-eabi: /usr/share/doc/gcc-arm-none-eabi/info/gcc.info
gcc-arm-none-eabi: /usr/share/doc/gcc-arm-none-eabi/info/gccinstall.info
gcc-arm-none-eabi: /usr/share/doc/gcc-arm-none-eabi/info/gccint.info

The set above appears to be basically trivial info files which just
refer to other external gcc documentation.


notmuch info documents are neither of these.

> It depends who you care about more, non-debian users of the elpa
> package,

I'm asking about what goes into the debian elpa-notmuch package, so for
those purposes, i don't care.

> or users of the standalone info reader. I'm not either...

I generally don't use /usr/bin/info, but when i do, it's from the
standalone info reader.

I also note that "M-x info" from within emacs does have a top-level
mention of (for example) GnuTLS, which is only present (afaict) due to
files in /usr/share/info/

so my conclusion from this is that the debian package should be shipping
.info files in /usr/share/info.

Doing that also means we can fix another big chunk of the dh_missing
warnings.

Unless anyone has any objections, i'll send some cleanup fixes for this
as well, to ship the info files in the standard location rather than in
the elpa dir.

    --dkg

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Re: shipping elisp for notmuch in elpa-notmuch debian package

[David Bremner]

Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net> writes:


> I generally don't use /usr/bin/info, but when i do, it's from the
> standalone info reader.
>
> I also note that "M-x info" from within emacs does have a top-level
> mention of (for example) GnuTLS, which is only present (afaict) due to
> files in /usr/share/info/
>
> so my conclusion from this is that the debian package should be shipping
> .info files in /usr/share/info.

sure, I don't really object to this. I guess I was just lazy /
impressed-with-myself for finding an upstream way to install info
files. As long as you don't break "make elpa", I don't mind making the
debian packaging more standard.

Re: shipping elisp for notmuch in elpa-notmuch debian package

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

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On Sat 2019-12-07 10:32:26 -0400, David Bremner wrote:
> sure, I don't really object to this. I guess I was just lazy /
> impressed-with-myself for finding an upstream way to install info
> files. As long as you don't break "make elpa", I don't mind making the
> debian packaging more standard.

I don't think that any of my changes have any impact on the "make elpa"
codepath at all, so i think that should be ok :)

         --dkg

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