This directory contains most of the source code of the GNU ELPA packages.

Each directory in here corresponds to a package, which can be
either a single-file package or a multifile package.

A nightly cron job refreshes the GNU ELPA archive from this repository.

This cron job only creates a new package when the "version" (as specified in
the foo-pkg.el or in the "Version:" header) of a package is modified.
This means that you can safely work on the next version here without
worrying about the unstable code making it to GNU ELPA, and simply update
the "version" when you want to release the new code.

* Format

Each package should follow the ELPA packaging conventions, but there are
some differences due to the way the deployment script creates the packages
and the web-pages from this source code:
- Multi-file packages can put the package metadata in the main <pkg>.el file
  in the format used for single-file packages, in which case the script
  will auto-generate the <pkg>-pkg.el file.
- the "URL:" header (or :url property) can be used to specify the home page
  of the package, if it's maintained externally.
- A "News:" section (or "NEWS" file) can/should be used to list the
  user-visible changes of each version.
- The "Package-Type:" header can be used to force the type of package
  created (can be either `simple' for single-file packages or `multi' for
  tarballs).  By default the type is decided based on whether there are
  several Elisp files in the source (the other files will simply be
  ignored).
- If you want some files to not be included in the tarball, you can
  put a `.elpaignore' file in the root of your package directory, where you
  can list patterns of files to ignore (this file is passed to tar's -X).

* External branches

Some packages are maintained in external branches.  These should be
appropriately listed in the `externals-list' file.
There are two different cases: subtrees and externals.

In both cases, a copy of the code is kept in the `elpa' repository and
should be sync'd with the upstream every once in a while.  This copy may
include local changes, tho ideally these should be kept to a minimum.

In the `subtree' case, the copy of the code is kept here in the
corresponding `packages/<pkg>' directory.  You should be able to "git
merge -s subtree" from the upstream branch.

In the `external' case, the copy of the code is not kept here but in the
`externals/<pkg>' branch in the `elpa' repository.
You can check out all the external packages into the `packages' directory
with the command:

   make externals