code.delx.au - gnu-emacs-elpa/blob - README

   1 Copyright (C) 2010-2011, 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   2 See the end of the file for license conditions.
   3
   4
   5 This branch contains the sources, deployment scripts, and auxilliary
   6 files for the Emacs Lisp package archive (elpa.gnu.org).
   7
   8 This file explains the branch layout, how to add and edit packages,
   9 and how to deploy the archive (either on elpa.gnu.org, or a local copy
  10 for testing purposes).
  11
  12
  13 * DIRECTORY LAYOUT
  14
  15 ** admin/    -- scripts for administering the package archive.
  16 ** html/     -- HTML for the elpa.gnu.org website.
  17 ** packages/ -- source code for the packages.
  18
  19
  20 * PACKAGES
  21
  22 ** Contents of the packages/ directory:
  23 This directory holds the package sources, with one subdirectory for
  24 each package.
  25
  26 Each directory in here corresponds to a package, which can be
  27 either a single-file package or a multifile package.
  28
  29 A nightly cron job refreshes the GNU ELPA archive from this repository.
  30
  31 This cron job only creates a new package when the "version" (as specified in
  32 the "Version:" header) of a package is modified.  This means that you can
  33 safely work on the next version here without worrying about the unstable
  34 code making it to GNU ELPA, and simply update the "version" when you want to
  35 release the new code.
  36
  37 ** To add a package:
  38
  39 *** Add a simple (1-file) package as packages/NAME/NAME.el.
  40
  41 The file needs to follow the usual coding conventions (most importantly
  42 start with ";;; <file> --- <description>") and have a "Version:" and
  43 "Maintainer:" pseudo-header.
  44
  45 *** Add a multi-file package as a directory, packages/NAME.
  46
  47 It needs to have a file named packages/NAME/NAME.el which follows the same
  48 rules as above.
  49
  50 *** Commit your changes the usual way ("git add", "git commit", etc).
  51
  52 Changes in the Git repository do not immediately propagate to the
  53 user-facing archive (what users see when they do `M-x list-packages').
  54 That is done by deploying the archive, which happens automatically
  55 once a day, and the changes are only reflected when the "Version:"
  56 header changes.
  57
  58 ** Format
  59
  60 Each package should follow the ELPA packaging conventions, but there are
  61 some differences due to the way the deployment script creates the packages
  62 and the web-pages from this source code:
  63 - Multi-file packages put the package metadata in the main <pkg>.el file
  64   in the format used for single-file packages: the <pkg>-pkg.el file is
  65   auto-generated from it.
  66 - Every package should have both a "Version:" *and* a "Maintainer:".
  67 - the "URL:" header can be used to specify the home page
  68   of the package, if it's maintained externally.
  69 - A "News:" section (or "NEWS" file) can/should be used to list the
  70   user-visible changes of each version.
  71 - The "Package-Type:" header can be used to force the type of package
  72   created (can be either `simple' for single-file packages or `multi' for
  73   tarballs).  By default the type is decided based on whether there are
  74   several Elisp files in the source.
  75 - If you want some files to not be included in the tarball, you can
  76   put a `.elpaignore' file in the root of your package directory, where you
  77   can list patterns of files to ignore (this file is passed to tar's -X).
  78
  79 ** External branches
  80
  81 Some packages are maintained in external branches.  These should be
  82 appropriately listed in the `externals-list' file.
  83 There are two different cases: subtrees and externals.
  84
  85 In both cases, a copy of the code is kept in the `elpa' repository and
  86 should be sync'd with the upstream every once in a while.  This copy may
  87 include local changes, tho ideally these should be kept to a minimum.
  88
  89 *** Subtrees
  90
  91 In the `subtree' case, the copy of the code is kept here in the
  92 corresponding `packages/<pkg>' directory.  You should be able to use:
  93
  94     git subtree add --prefix=packages/<pkg> <remote-repo> <remote-branch>
  95
  96 to add your package from some remote repo, and then
  97
  98     git subtree pull --prefix=packages/<pkg> <remote-repo> <remote-branch>
  99
 100 whenever you want to update it.  On older git versions you can try "git
 101 merge -s subtree".
 102
 103 When you're adding and pulling, DO NOT --SQUASH!!
 104
 105 Don't worry about flooding elpa.git's commit log with your package's
 106 commit messages.  Your package is part of elpa.git.  Squashing
 107 doesn't help and only gets in the way.
 108
 109 *** Externals
 110
 111 In the `external' case, the copy of the code is not kept here but in the
 112 `externals/<pkg>' branch in the `elpa' repository.
 113
 114 You can check out all the external packages into the `packages' directory
 115 with the command:
 116
 117    make externals
 118
 119 You can check out a specific external PACKAGE into the `packages'
 120 directory with these commands:
 121
 122    cd packages
 123    git clone --reference .. --single-branch --branch externals/PACKAGE $(git config remote.origin.url) PACKAGE
 124
 125 If you already have a packages/PACKAGE directory with a previous
 126 checkout, you can update it like this:
 127
 128    cd packages/PACKAGE
 129    git pull
 130
 131 ** Public incubation
 132
 133 If you want to develop a package publicly prior to its first release (to
 134 benefit from others' feedback, primarily), but not in an external repo,
 135 you have 2 choices:
 136 - you can simply put "Version: 0" to indicate that this should not be
 137   released yet.
 138 - or you can push to an "ephemeral" branch -- subject to rebase and eventual
 139   removal upon finishing merge -- for the duration of the incubation.
 140
 141 * DEPLOYMENT
 142
 143 ** To install all the packages "in place":
 144
 145    make externals
 146    make
 147
 148 This compiles and generates autoloads for all the packages in the
 149 packages/ directory.  You can then add that directory, e.g. with:
 150
 151 (eval-after-load 'package
 152   '(add-to-list 'package-directory-list ".../elpa/packages"))
 153
 154 ** To deploy the package repository as a remotely-accessible archive:
 155
 156    git clone .../elpa
 157    mkdir build
 158    cd build
 159    (cd ../elpa; git log --format=%H | tail -n 1) >.changelog-witness
 160    ln -s ../elpa/admin
 161    ln -s ../elpa/GNUmakefile
 162    admin/update-archive.sh
 163
 164 This deploys the packages to the staging/ directory (sibling of "build").
 165 Unlike "make", this makes a full copy of the packages, tars up
 166 multi-file packages, and doesn't byte-compile any files.
 167
 168 ** To access a deployed archive
 169
 170 To access the archive via HTTP, have a symlink (say) /var/www/packages
 171 pointing to DEST/packages, and set up Emacs with
 172
 173   (setq package-archives '(("new-elpa" . "http://foo.com/packages")))
 174
 175 You can also access the archive via normal file access.  Such "local
 176 archives" are useful for debugging:
 177
 178   (setq package-archives '(("local-elpa" . ".../elpa/packages")))
 179
 180 ** Notes specific to elpa.gnu.org
 181
 182 The way things are set up on this machine, we refresh the archive by
 183 a cron job.  You can do it by hand by logging in (access set up by FSF
 184 admins), and
 185
 186    su elpa
 187    cd ~elpa/build
 188    admin/update-archive.sh
 189
 190 Which makes a full archive deployment, as discussed above.  The symlink
 191 /var/www/packages points to the staging package directory under
 192 /home/elpa/.
 193
 194 The Org mode dailies are also fetched and added by the script
 195 admin/org-synch.sh, run as a cron job.
 196
 197 \f
 198 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
 199
 200 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 201 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 202 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 203 (at your option) any later version.
 204
 205 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 206 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 207 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 208 GNU General Public License for more details.
 209
 210 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 211 along with GNU Emacs.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 212
 213 \f
 214 Local variables:
 215 mode: outline
 216 paragraph-separate: "[  \f]*$"
 217 end: