What's the magic behind the ELPA? - emacs

I use Aquamacs, and I use ELPA that installs files in ~/.emacs.d/elpa?
What's the magic behind this ELPA? I mean, without ELPA, I should download and install the packages in a specific directory, and add those two lines in .emacs.
(add-to-list 'load-path "PACKAGE_DIRECTORY")
(require 'PACKAGE)
But, with ELPA, I don't see anything added to .emacs or /Users/smcho/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs Emacs/{Preferences.el, customizations.el}. How is this possible?
Added
This is what I found with Aquamacs.
Aquamacs reads ~/Preference/Aquamacs Emacs/Preference, and it has "(add-to-list 'load-path kitfiles-dir)(require 'init)", which reads start kit.
The init.el of start kit has the "(require 'package)(package-initialize)"
~/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs Emacs/aquamacs-emacs-starter-kit/vendor has the package.el
I guess the initialization files are not changed, but the package manager reads the ~/.emacs.d/elpd/* to initialize automatically, as I see ***-autoloads.el in each of it.
Added2
With emacs 24, it seems that package is pre-built. I need only to have these lines in .emacs or .emacs.d/init.el to get ELPA working. Hints from this site.
(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
'("marmalade" . "http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/"))
(package-initialize)
(when (not package-archive-contents)
(package-refresh-contents))
(defvar my-packages '(clojure-mode
nrepl))
(dolist (p my-packages)
(when (not (package-installed-p p))
(package-install p)))

(package-initialize) will go through all the installed packages (in ~/.emacs.d/elpa/ or similar, depending on configuration), and add them to the load path. One you have run it, take a look at load-path (C-hvload-path), it will have all those subdirectories added. So at this point, file loading will use the normal mechanisms.

You have a (require 'package) (package-initialize) pair somewhere in your initialization files. Package.el does the magic :)

Related

How to stop a package from initializing with package-initialize on emacs (slime)

I've been trying to get slime+sbcl working on my emacs (26.3) for a while. I first installed slime via melpa and that didn't work. I finally got slime able to work on a clean emacs (emacs -q) using quicklisp and the following code:
(load "~/quicklisp/slime-helper.el")
(setq inferior-lisp-program "sbcl")
However, when I put it into my actual init file and run it, it doesn't work. I figured that if I put package-enable-at-startup to nil and commented out package-initialize, that slime works. My guess is that the installed slime through melpa is "overriding" the slime initialization using slime-helper. I can't uninstall slime via melpa because of package dependencies and am worried I might mess something up. But I also need all of my packages to initialize except slime. So I was wondering if there was anyway to initialize all my packages, but suppress the slime package.
I think the easiest method would be to disable the loading of "elpa slime" with package-load-list. See its documentation with C-hv package-load-list Return. In short you'd put something like this in your init file.
(require 'package)
(setq gnutls-algorithm-priority "NORMAL:-VERS-TLS1.3")
(add-to-list 'package-archives
'("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/")
'("gnu" . "https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/"))
(setq package-load-list '((slime nil))) ;; don't load slime
(package-initialize)
(load (expand-file-name "~/quicklisp/slime-helper.el"))
(setq inferior-lisp-program "sbcl")
package-initialize will skip loading slime (and manipulating your load-path), allowing the "quicklisp slime" to appear first on your load-path. This may or may not break dependencies loaded by the package system. If they do break, I'd see if quicklisp can manage them and deal with them that way, or I would manually manage them.

package-install can't find icicles

I'm trying to install icicles in Emacs because I've read it makes for a more clear emacs experience. The problem is, even though I'm loading the Melpa repositories, and Checked melpa for if the package was available (it was) If I try package-install on it, it returns [no match].
I've tried package-refresh-contents to na avail. Please help with this, I could do it manually, but AUGH!
Just for context, here's the contents on my .emacs:
;; packages
(require 'package)
(setq package-archives '(("gnu" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/")
("org" . "http://orgmode.org/elpa/")
("marmalade" . "https://marmalade-repo.org/packages/")
("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/")))
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/elisp")
(defun require-package (package)
(setq-default highlight-tabs t)
"Install given PACKAGE."
(unless (package-installed-p package)
(unless (assoc package package-archive-contents)
(package-refresh-contents))
(package-install package)))
(package-initialize)
(load-theme 'zenburn t)
(require 'php-mode)
(eval-after-load 'php-mode
'(require 'php-ext))
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.json$" . js-mode))
(custom-set-variables
;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
'(custom-safe-themes (quote ("f5eb916f6bd4e743206913e6f28051249de8ccfd070eae47b5bde31ee813d55f" default))))
(custom-set-faces
;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom.
;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
;;
Thanks in advance, all help is very much appreciated
Icicles is no longer distributed on ELPA or MELPA:
NOTE:
Icicles, as well as my other libraries that are on EmacsWiki, used to be obtainable also from MELPA. You may still find some of them there, but they are likely not up-to-date.
As of 2017-10, MELPA has decided to no longer accept Lisp libraries from EmacsWiki. This includes my libraries, even though these libraries are read-only (administrator lock on the wiki pages). Too bad. This means that you must download Icicles and my other libraries only from Emacs Wiki. Sorry about that. I upload Icicles files only to the wiki.
https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Icicles_-_Libraries
Solved the problem by doing M-x eval-buffer on my .emacs.

adding package-repositories to emacs

I need to add various packages to my emacs installation. It comes with tromey as the only repository. The variable package-archives is not defined (!). I am running GNU Emacs version 24.3.1 on Linux. I set up the following code in my .emacs file:
(when (>= emacs-major-version 24)
(require 'package)
(setq package-enable-at-startup nil)
(setq package-archives '())
(package-initialize)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
'("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/") t)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
'("gnu" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/"))
(add-to-list 'package-archives
'("marmalade" . "https://marmalade-repo.org/packages/"))
(add-to-list 'package-archives
'("org" . "http://orgmode.org/elpa/") t)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
'("tromey" . "http://tromey.com/elpa/") t)
)
By default, without this code, the variable package-archives isn't defined. After running this code, it is, and contains the right values, but doesn't seem to have any effect. I verified that this variable is not customized anywhere.
The problem is that I don't get to see any packages from the various archives I added; Only from tromey. Obviously I'm doing something wrong, but this code is supposed to work from emacs version 24 and higher.
Can someone suggest how to set up my repositories properly?
Everything worked well! What does that mean? That something in my .emacs file is conflicting with elpa?
That's exactly what it means.
Comment out half of your configuration (comment-dwim, bound to C-; by default, might be helpful here) and see if that fixes it. That will tell you which have contains the ELPA conflict. Repeat with the half that shows the problem to find which quarter is problematic, then again to find the eighth…
Pretty soon you'll find the cause, which might be a single sexp. Remove or adjust that, uncomment the rest of your config, and enjoy the plethora of packages that await.

(message "%S" load-path) and (describe-variable load-path) give different results

(message "%S" load-path) and (describe-variable 'load-path)
give different results.
Several more path like "/Users/updogliu/.emacs.d/elpa/flycheck-20140323.828" appeared in the latter.
How can I make (require 'flycheck) use the "describe" one load-path?
To setup Flycheck properly, you do not need to require Flycheck. Instead, just enable Global Flycheck Mode:
(add-hook 'after-init-hook #'global-flycheck-mode)
This will enable Flycheck for all supported languages.
To make (require 'flycheck) work in your init.el, you need to add (package-initialize) at the very beginning of your init.el.
(package-initialize) sets up Emacs' built-in package system, which includes adding all packages to the load-path. Emacs calls this automatically, but only after your init.el has been processed, hence the use of after-init-hook to enable Flycheck.
If you added a message call to your init.el without calling (package-initialize) first, you'll hence see the standard load-path without any of your packages.
To make your packages available in your init.el right away, you need to call (package-initialize) manually, at the beginning of your init.el.

Slime mode error

I was following the guide and information from A gentle tutorial to Emacs/Swank/Paredit for Clojure
However after opening elpa and installing clojure-mode, slime and paredit. I restarted emacs and then attempted to use M-x slime however it continually says no match . What am I doing wrong?
I then tried to install clojure-mode from marmalade http://marmalade-repo.org/packages I byte-compiled package el and then added
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("marmalade" . "http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/")) to my.emacs. However marmalade errors with
Symbol's value as variable is void: package-archives .
Unsure exactly what I am doing wrong I am on windows7 using emacs 23.3. I have clojure installed to c:/clojure.
Any help appreciated.
My init.el has both (require 'package) and (package-initialize). It's not very big, it looks like this:
(require 'package)
;; Add the original Emacs Lisp Package Archive
(add-to-list 'package-archives
'("elpa" . "http://tromey.com/elpa/"))
;; Add the user-contributed repository
(add-to-list 'package-archives
'("marmalade" . "http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/"))
(package-initialize)
I'm on emacs 24 (a development build) on Windows 7. I had trouble getting emacs 23 to work with packages too, it was easier for me to just upgrade.
By the way, I noticed that if I set a HOME environment variable, emacs looks there for the .emacs.d directory (instead of in %USER_PROFILE%\AppData\Roaming).
Download package.el (don't follow the instructions on the ELPA site, just download the package.el provided on marmalade's site).
Put package.el in your .emacs.d directory (~/.emacs.d/).
Add the following to your .emacs file (~/.emacs):
;;Load path to my packages
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/")
;;Load ELPA (the package.el you downloaded from marmalade)
(require 'package)
;;Load Marmalade (the code found on marmalade's welcome page)
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("marmalade" . "http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/"))
That's it! I really hope this helps.
EDIT: Sorry, I forgot to mention that you need to add (package-initialize) at the end of the code I provided. If you don't add this line, the packages will install, but won't load.
I think, that you need to put
(require 'package)
before 'add-to-list'
P.S. and add following call after 'add-to-list'
(package-initialize)
this command will load installed packages and activate them
P.P.S. '(require 'package)' maybe not needed, but I'm personally not using 'package.el'
It seems to me you're missing either (require 'package) or (package-initialize). You can check out my setup here - I'm using both marmalade and clojure-mode on Windows 7 and it works like a charm.
Do not know it is same problem, I faced when I were trying to use quicklisp's swank/slime
Finally I found that few /contrib/*.el packages were dependent on each other
if A's dependency package is B, if B is not byte-compiled than A will not compile
when you do
(require 'A)
it will throw
Symbol's variable value is void: A
So ensure you compile each package than try require.