el-get.info

This is el-get.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.8 from el-get.texi.

INFO-DIR-SECTION Emacs
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* El-Get: (el-get).        Using el-get to manage your Emacs Extensions.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

   Copyright (C) 2010, 2011, 2012 Dimitri Fontaine.

                 DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE
             Version 2, December 2004

     Copyright (C) 2004 Sam Hocevar <sam@hocevar.net>

     Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim or modified
     copies of this license document, and changing it is allowed as long
     as the name is changed.

     DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE    TERMS AND
     CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

     0. You just DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO.


File: el-get.info,  Node: Top,  Next: Introduction,  Up: (dir)

El-Get User Manual
******************

El-Get is an Emacs Extension manager that allows you to install, update
and remove external Emacs Lisp extensions. More importantly, El-Get
will care about initializing installed extensions for you at Emacs
Startup.

* Menu:

* Introduction::
* Acknowledgments::
* Glossary::
* Installing::
* Usage::
* Setup::
* User Init::
* Recipes::
* Authoring Recipes::


File: el-get.info,  Node: Introduction,  Next: Acknowledgments,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

1 Introduction
**************

El-Get allows you to install and manage Emacs Lisp code for Emacs. It
supports lots of differents types of sources and is able to install
them, update them and remove them, and more importantly it will init
them for you.

   That means it will `require' the `features' you need, `load' the
necessary files, set the `Info' paths so that `C-h i' shows the new
documentation you now depend on, and finally call your own `post-init'
function for you to setup the extension. Or call it a package.

   El-Get Version String (`M-x el-get-version') are now inspired by how
Emacs itself numbers its versions.  First is the major version number,
then a dot, then the minor version number.  The minor version number is
0 when still developping the next major version.  So 3.0 is a developer
release while 3.1 is a stable release.

   Please note that this versioning policy has been picked while backing
1.2~dev, so 1.0 was a "stable" release in fact.  Ah, history.


File: el-get.info,  Node: Acknowledgments,  Next: Glossary,  Prev: Introduction,  Up: Top

2 Acknowledgments
*****************

Dimitri Fontaine started the whole project and still manages the
releases, and sometimes even contribute code and documentation.

   Julien Danjou has been a contributor since very early days, about the
first beta tester of the idea, before we really knew how much to
achieve.

   Ryan C. Thompson joined and commented some issues, began contributing
and quickly became top-level and most active contributor to the
project, getting a commit bit and some management duties. He manages
tests and issues on github as much as he can spares time to El-Get.

   Dave Abrahams contributed lots of code and efforts to make things
right™. He's still using El-Get, but decided to retire from the
project.

   Lots of people (more than we can list here) did contribute to El-Get
either recipes, bug fixes or ideas to implement, often with code. That
builds up an awesome community, thanks guys!

     dim ~/dev/emacs/el-get git --no-pager shortlog -n -s | wc -l
          133
     dim ~/dev/emacs/el-get git --no-pager shortlog -n -s | head -10
        713	Dimitri Fontaine
        336	Ryan C. Thompson
        110	Dave Abrahams
        106	Julien Danjou
         73	Ryan Thompson
         68	Sébastien Gross
         34	Takafumi Arakaki
         25	Yakkala Yagnesh Raghava
         25	Alex Ott
         21	Rüdiger Sonderfeld


File: el-get.info,  Node: Glossary,  Next: Installing,  Prev: Acknowledgments,  Up: Top

3 Glossary
**********

Autoload
     Delay loading a package definition until its first use.

Build
     Action that happens at *Note Glossary - Install::, and *Note
     Glossary - Update::. Packages might skip any `build' step
     entirely. When given, the build step allows to run system level
     tools (think `make'), often to produce to derivative files.

Byte-Compile
     Action to compile Emacs Lisp files so that loading them is faster.
     El-Get is able to automatically manage that step at install and
     update time so that init time is faster, see *Note Glossary -
     Init::.

Dependency
     Any El-Get package can depend on some others. At install time,
     El-Get will make sure all dependant packages are installed first.
     At init time, same thing will happen. Dependency management is
     solved with a topological sort so that if you install a package
     `a' that depends on a package `b' that depends on a package `c',
     El-Get will install `c' then `b' then `a'.

Init
     When you start Emacs you want your packages to get setup and ready
     to serve whatever usage you have of this advanced Operating
     System. El-Get calls this setup step the `init' and will care
     about initializing your packages automatically given a *Note
     Glossary - Recipe::.

Install
     El-Get install a package by fetching its sources as described in
     the package recipe, then running the build steps if the recipe
     contains such.

Method
     An El-Get method is a backend code providing facilities to fetch,
     install, update and remove external code. El-Get currently
     implements methods that targets `apt-get', `brew', `builtin',
     `bzr', `cvs', `darcs', `elpa', `emacsmirror', `emacswiki', `fink',
     `fossil', `git' and `git-svn', `github' `github-tar' and
     `github-zip', `hg', `http' `http-tar' and `http-zip', `pacman' and
     `svn'.

Notification
     El-Get notifies its user when a package is done installing,
     updating or removing. It knows how to use several system level
     notification facilities, such as `DBUS' or `growl'.

Package
     A package is what El-Get manages for you. It's a set of Emacs Lisp
     files (possible a set of a single file, possibly with some Info
     documentation and build scripts, etc) that El-Get knows how to
     fetch and install, update and remove, and init at Emacs Startup.

Recipe
     An El-Get recipe describes a package in terms that allow El-Get to
     provide its features against that package. It's easy enough to
     write recipes, and fun to share them!

Remove
     El-Get removes a package by simple removing the directory where the
     package is installed. If you want the features of the package to
     get unloaded, most often the easier way to do that is to restart
     Emacs.

Status
     One of `available', `installed', `required' or `removed'. When
     El-Get is asked to install a package, the status is set to
     `required' before to fetch and build it, so that in case of error
     the system knows to try installing again.

Update
     El-Get updates a package in different ways, depending on the
     package type and the associated method. In some cases it's not
     possible to update a package, like when it switched from `svn' to
     `git' for example.



File: el-get.info,  Node: Installing,  Next: Usage,  Prev: Glossary,  Up: Top

4 Installing
************

El-Get comes with a `*scratch*'-installer. Ideally you would install
El-Get with El-Get itself, but I couldn't figure out how to do that, so
instead you have to copy and paste the following code into your
`*scratch*' buffer and evaluate it:

     ;; So the idea is that you copy/paste this code into your *scratch* buffer,
     ;; hit C-j, and you have a working el-get.
     (url-retrieve
      "https://raw.github.com/dimitri/el-get/master/el-get-install.el"
      (lambda (s)
        (goto-char (point-max))
        (eval-print-last-sexp)))

   To evaluate that code, you place the point at the end of the text
block (just after the last closing paren) and you type `C-j'.

* Menu:

* Install the developper version::
* Skip Emacswiki recipes when installing::


File: el-get.info,  Node: Install the developper version,  Next: Skip Emacswiki recipes when installing,  Up: Installing

4.1 Developper version
======================

The lazy installer uses the default `el-get-install.el' file which
targets the `stable' branch.  To install El-Get directly on the
`master' branch, summon the `el-get-master-branch' variable into
existence:

     ;; So the idea is that you copy/paste this code into your *scratch* buffer,
     ;; hit C-j, and you have a working developper edition of el-get.
     (url-retrieve
      "https://raw.github.com/dimitri/el-get/master/el-get-install.el"
      (lambda (s)
        (let (el-get-master-branch)
          (goto-char (point-max))
          (eval-print-last-sexp))))


File: el-get.info,  Node: Skip Emacswiki recipes when installing,  Prev: Install the developper version,  Up: Installing

4.2 Skip Emacswiki recipes when installing
==========================================

The installer will fetch from emacswiki all the recipe available there
and install a local copy of those in your system automatically. Should
you want to disable that feature, the following snippet is showing how
to:

     ;; So the idea is that you copy/paste this code into your *scratch* buffer,
     ;; hit C-j, and you have a working el-get (without emacswiki automatic
     ;; recipes).
     (url-retrieve
      "https://raw.github.com/dimitri/el-get/master/el-get-install.el"
      (lambda (s)
        (let (el-get-install-skip-emacswiki-recipes)
          (goto-char (point-max))
          (eval-print-last-sexp))))


File: el-get.info,  Node: Usage,  Next: Setup,  Prev: Installing,  Up: Top

5 Usage
*******

Now that El-Get is installed, simply use `M-x el-get-install' and pick
whatever package you need.

   Here's a list of commands provided by El-Get:

`el-get-list-packages'
     List all available packages with their names, *Note Glossary -
     Status::, and description. Name and description are taken from the
     recipe file of the package.

     You can find which recipe file is used for a given package using
     `el-get-find-recipe-file' or `el-get-describe'.

`el-get-describe'
     Offers a full text description of a package with buttons to
     install, remove and update, and with the recipe content.

`el-get-find-recipe-file'
     Find the recipe file for given recipe, prompted.

`el-get-install'
     Install given package, as prompted.

`el-get-init'
     Initialize given package, as prompted. If some user code is setup
     to be run at initialisation, it will get run by this command. See
     *Note User Init::.

`el-get-update'
     Update a given package, as prompted. In some cases a straight
     update is not possible (recipe switched from CVS to git is a common
     reason). El-Get will try and detect such cases and do
     `el-get-remove' then `el-get-install' if necessary.

     Please realise that updating packages might break your current
     package setup and that you will have to revisit your setup
     accordingly.

`el-get-remove'
     Remove given package, as prompted.

`el-get-self-update'
     Update El-Get itself, and force that update to be synchronous. That
     allows to make sure you're not updating El-Get code while trying to
     update or install some other package at the same time.

`el-get-update-all'
     Will update all packages that have the `installed' status in your
     status file.  Before the update you will be prompted for
     confirmation that you wish to proceed.

     Beware that using this function can lead to hours of settings
     review: more often than not updating a package requires some
     adjustments to your setup.  Updating all of them at once will
     require reviewing almost all your setup.

`el-get-reload'
     Reload the given package files.  Happens automatically at update
     time too.



File: el-get.info,  Node: Setup,  Next: User Init,  Prev: Usage,  Up: Top

6 Setup
*******

El-Get setup can be very simple or arbitrarily complex. This chapter
explains how to do the very basic setup, which allow for using `M-x
el-get-install' and friends, then how to get a more involved setup.

* Menu:

* Basic Setup::
* The el-get function::
* Distributed Setup::
* Setup Customization::


File: el-get.info,  Node: Basic Setup,  Next: The el-get function,  Up: Setup

6.1 Basic Setup
===============

You can then arrange to have El-Get part of your setup, so that at next
emacs startup the installed packages are initialized.

     (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/el-get/el-get")

     (unless (require 'el-get nil t)
       (with-current-buffer
           (url-retrieve-synchronously
            "https://raw.github.com/dimitri/el-get/master/el-get-install.el")
         (goto-char (point-max))
         (eval-print-last-sexp)))

     (el-get 'sync)

   The `el-get' command will check that each and every package is
installed on your system (in `el-get-dir' and if that's not the case,
it will actually install it. Then, it will init the packages: that
means caring about the `load-path', the `Info-directory-list' (and dir
texinfo menu building) the loading of the emacs-lisp files, and finally
it will require the features or eval the package `autoloads'.

   This usage is pretty simple to setup and use, but fails to cater with
more complex setups involving multiple deployments (home and work
laptop would be a classic example). El-Get fully supports that
distributed setup, though, and this chapter explain how.


File: el-get.info,  Node: The el-get function,  Next: Distributed Setup,  Prev: Basic Setup,  Up: Setup

6.2 The el-get function
=======================

Ensure that packages have been downloaded once and init them as needed.

   This will not update the sources by using `apt-get install' or `git
pull', but it will ensure that:

   * the packages have been installed

   * load-path is set so their elisp files can be found

   * Info-directory-list is set so their info files can be found

   * Autoloads have been prepared and evaluated for each package

   * Any post-installation setup (e.g. `(require 'feature)') happens


   When SYNC is `nil' (the default), all installations run
concurrently, in the background.

   When SYNC is `sync', each package will be installed synchronously,
and any error will stop it all.

   Please note that the `el-get-init' part of `el-get' is always done
synchronously. There's `byte-compile' support though, and the packages
you use are welcome to use `autoload' too. You can also force your
setup to be loaded lazily with the `el-get-is-lazy' variable.

   `PACKAGES' is expected to be a list of packages you want to install
or init.  When `PACKAGES' is omited (the default), the list of already
installed packages is considered.


File: el-get.info,  Node: Distributed Setup,  Next: Setup Customization,  Prev: The el-get function,  Up: Setup

6.3 Distributed Setup
=====================

When you are sharing your emacs setup between several machines (work
and home destops, laptop, etc); it's usual to manage your `.emacs.d'
setup in a distributed repository (such as `git'). El-Get then provide
and easy canonical list of packages you depend on to run emacs, and
this documentation is usable as-is.

     (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/el-get/el-get")
     (require 'el-get)

     ;; local sources
     (setq el-get-sources
      '((:name magit
         :after (global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-z") 'magit-status))

       (:name asciidoc
        :type elpa
        :after (progn
           (autoload 'doc-mode "doc-mode" nil t)
           (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.adoc$" . doc-mode))
           (add-hook 'doc-mode-hook
              '(lambda ()
               (turn-on-auto-fill)
                (require 'asciidoc)))))

       (:name lisppaste :type elpa)

       (:name emacs-goodies-el :type apt-get)))

     (setq my-packages
           (append
            '(cssh el-get switch-window vkill google-maps nxhtml xcscope yasnippet)
            (mapcar 'el-get-source-name el-get-sources)))

     (el-get 'sync my-packages)


File: el-get.info,  Node: Setup Customization,  Prev: Distributed Setup,  Up: Setup

6.4 Setup Customization
=======================

Even though the defaults that are provided by El-Get provide all that
you need to get it working, there may be a reason to manually define
certain settings, particularly for portability.

`el-get-dir'
     Path where packages are installed. Defaults to
     `~/.emacs.d/el-get/'.

`el-get-install-dir'
     Path for the `el-get' package. Defaults to
     `~/.emacs.d/el-get/el-get'.

`el-get-install-branch'
     If this is set, El-Get will be installed using the target
     `branch'.  This takes precedence over setting
     `el-get-master-branch' in the installation settings, see *Note
     Installing::.

`el-get-git-install-url'
     Use this to specify your own fork of El-Get for installation.

`el-get-recipe-path-elpa'
     This directory stores a local list of ELPA recipes.
     `~/.emacs.d/el-get/el-get/recipes/elpa'

`el-get-recipe-path-emacswiki'
     As above for ELPA, this directory stores a local list of emacswiki
     recipes. Defaults to `~/.emacs.d/el-get/el-get/recipes/emacswiki/'.



File: el-get.info,  Node: User Init,  Next: Recipes,  Prev: Setup,  Up: Top

7 User Init
***********

The main task performed by El-Get is package initialization at Emacs
startup. It will care about all of them, their dependencies, and call
code provided by the recipe author. You can add your own setup code and
register it in a way that El-Get will evaluate it at the right time.

   The package setup can either go into the `:after' property, or in a
file named `init-package.el' in `el-get-user-package-directory'.  Any
such named file will get automatically loaded by El-Get at package init
time, if it exists.

* Menu:

* Before and After properties ::
* Initialization files::


File: el-get.info,  Node: Before and After properties,  Next: Initialization files,  Up: User Init

7.1 Before and After properties
===============================

The `:before' and `:after' properties are evaluated by El-Get in the
package initialization sequence.

`:before'
     This should be a lisp form to evaluate after both the
     `Info-directory-list' and the `load-path' variables have been
     taken care of, but before loading the package or any further
     action from `el-get-init'.  It will be run with the variable
     `default-directory' set to the package directory.

`:after'
     This should be a lisp form to evaluate after loading the package.
     This function is registered for `eval-after-load' against the
     recipe library by `el-get-init' once the `:load' and `:features'
     have been setup. It will be run with the variable
     `default-directory' set to the package directory.


   Here's a couple of examples of package recipes that are using
`:before' and `:after' properties:

       (:name asciidoc
        :type elpa
        :after (lambda ()
           (autoload 'doc-mode "doc-mode" nil t)
           (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.adoc$" . doc-mode))
           (add-hook 'doc-mode-hook '(lambda ()
                     (turn-on-auto-fill)
                     (require 'asciidoc)))))

       (:name anything
        :features anything-config
        :before (global-set-key (kbd "M-s a") 'dim:anything-occur)
        :after  (setq w3m-command nil))


File: el-get.info,  Node: Initialization files,  Prev: Before and After properties,  Up: User Init

7.2 Initialization files
========================

El-Get will see if a file named `init-package.el' exists in the
directory pointed at by the `el-get-user-package-directory' variable.
When this variable is not nil and if such a file does exist in the
directory, then El-Get will load the user init file for PACKAGE.

   The initialization file is loaded at the same time as the `:after'
property would have be run, and just before it if you provide both.

   El-Get automatically byte compiles the init file as needed and load
the compiled version.


File: el-get.info,  Node: Recipes,  Next: Authoring Recipes,  Prev: User Init,  Up: Top

8 Recipes
*********

All of El-Get behavior is controled with recipes that you can share,
download, update and author. This chapter explain how to manage your
recipes and how to author them and ship them.

   Recipes are a list of properties, which are documented in the
variable EL-GET-SOURCES.

* Menu:

* Organizing recipes::
* Getting more recipes::
* Overriding package files::


File: el-get.info,  Node: Organizing recipes,  Next: Getting more recipes,  Up: Recipes

8.1 Organizing recipes
======================

El-Get needs to find a package recipe to be able to install or update
it. After that the recipe content is saved in the status file and
cached, so that you can still start Emacs even if you remove the recipe
file.

   The variable `el-get-recipe-path' is a list of directory paths where
to look for recipe files, in order. The recipe for a package `example'
must be named `example.rcp'. The first file named that way in the
`el-get-recipe-path' variable is used as the recipe.

   To check which recipe is used for a given package, use either the
`M-x el-get-describe' or `M-x el-get-find-recipe-file' command.

   This organisation with several path allow you to setup El-Get to use
its own recipes, recipes automatically created from online resources
(such as Emacswiki), and your own local recipes.

   As it's easy for El-Get to use your own recipes in the exact same way
than it uses its own recipes, it allows you to share them very easily.
Send the file to a friend and have it store it at the right place.

   It's also possible to setup `el-get-sources' with recipe
information. As long as the `type' property is not filled in
`el-get-sources', El-Get will first find the recipe as usual and then
merge the recipe content with the recipe skeleton provided by the
matching `el-get-sources' stanza.

   El-Get also supports full User Init files, see *Note User Init::.


File: el-get.info,  Node: Getting more recipes,  Next: Overriding package files,  Prev: Organizing recipes,  Up: Recipes

8.2 Getting more recipes
========================

The command `M-x el-get-emacswiki-refresh' downloads the list of Emacs
Lisp files available at EmacsWiki. El-Get is able to automatically
install any such file at the right place in `el-get-dir'. The
integration of an automatically generated recipe is often not enough,
you often have to add some initialisation code. See *Note User Init::.

   The command `el-get-elpa-build-local-recipes' downloads the list of
Emacs Lisp Packages from the ELPA archives you have setup, and make
them automatically available for El-Get.


File: el-get.info,  Node: Overriding package files,  Prev: Getting more recipes,  Up: Recipes

8.3 Overriding package files
============================

El-Get manages the files associated with a package. You can browse
those files using the `el-get-cd' function. It's possible to hack on
those files, be aware that doing so might break your setup capability
to handle upgrades.


File: el-get.info,  Node: Authoring Recipes,  Prev: Recipes,  Up: Top

9 Authoring Recipes
*******************

Authoring recipes is often very easy. El-Get goal is to adapt to any
Emacs Lisp code and distribution you can find out there in the wild, so
the list of features supported is quite large. Simple cases are very
simple, though.

* Menu:

* Recipe format::
* Dependencies::
* Byte Compilation::
* Autoloads::
* Build::


File: el-get.info,  Node: Recipe format,  Next: Dependencies,  Up: Authoring Recipes

9.1 Recipe format
=================

The recipe for the hypothetical package named `el-get-example' must be
provided in a file named `el-get-example.rcp'. This file will be
searched for as described in *Note Organizing recipes::. The variable
`el-get-sources' is also considered as a recipe source, as detailed in
*Note Organizing recipes::.

   A recipe file contains a lisp property list. Accepted properties are
described in the documentation for the variable `el-get-sources', and
their possible values are described at the same place.

   Please refer to that documentation.


File: el-get.info,  Node: Dependencies,  Next: Byte Compilation,  Prev: Recipe format,  Up: Authoring Recipes

9.2 Dependencies
================

When a recipe provides a `:depends' property, El-Get makes sure that
the given list of packages is installed and initialized before the
package for the current recipe is installed and initialized.


File: el-get.info,  Node: Byte Compilation,  Next: Autoloads,  Prev: Dependencies,  Up: Authoring Recipes

9.3 Byte Compilation
====================

By default, El-Get will recursively byte-compile the directory where
the package is installed, that is each and any file called
`something.el'. Some packages include non Emacs Lisp directories, and
sometime test files that are not meant to pass byte compilation without
errors or warnings. It is possible to setup your recipe to either only
target some files of the package, or to bypass byte compiling entirely.


File: el-get.info,  Node: Autoloads,  Next: Build,  Prev: Byte Compilation,  Up: Authoring Recipes

9.4 Autoloads
=============

Think about providing `autoloads' for your recipe if some are
available. You can provide them yourself too, for packages that should
have support for autoloads but ship without them.

   The `:prepare' property of a recipe is the right place where to put
added autoloads, as shown in this example:

     (:name undo-tree
            :description "Treat undo history as a tree"
            :type git
            :url "http://www.dr-qubit.org/git/undo-tree.git"
            :prepare (progn
                       (autoload 'undo-tree-mode "undo-tree.el"
                         "Undo tree mode; see undo-tree.el for details" t)
                       (autoload 'global-undo-tree-mode "undo-tree.el"
                         "Global undo tree mode" t)))

   The `:prepare' property of a recipe is considered the same as the
`:before' one, just evaluated after it. `:prepare' is meant for recipe
authors whereas `:before' is meant for user customisations. See *Note
Before and After properties::.


File: el-get.info,  Node: Build,  Prev: Autoloads,  Up: Authoring Recipes

9.5 Build
=========

The `:build' property of the recipe allows for OS integration at build
time. Build happens after the package has been fetched, and allows to
run commands such as `make'.

   The variable `el-get-emacs' contains the complete path where to find
the current Emacs executable you're running, as that's something build
commands often need.

   As shell interpolation can get hairy, El-Get offers you to setup your
build commands as Emacs Lisp list. See the magit recipe for an example:

     (:name magit
            :website "https://github.com/magit/magit#readme"
            :description "It's Magit! An Emacs mode for Git."
            :type github
            :pkgname "magit/magit"
            :info "."
            :autoloads ("50magit")
            :build (("make" "all"))
            :build/darwin `(,(concat "make EMACS=" el-get-emacs " all")))



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Node: Introduction1227
Node: Acknowledgments2302
Node: Glossary3752
Ref: Glossary - Init4848
Ref: Glossary - Install5150
Ref: Glossary - Recipe6237
Ref: Glossary - Status6661
Ref: Glossary - Update6919
Node: Installing7157
Node: Install the developper version8030
Node: Skip Emacswiki recipes when installing8775
Node: Usage9611
Node: Setup11900
Node: Basic Setup12296
Node: The el-get function13535
Node: Distributed Setup14811
Node: Setup Customization16122
Node: User Init17268
Node: Before and After properties17955
Node: Initialization files19463
Node: Recipes20116
Node: Organizing recipes20591
Node: Getting more recipes22106
Node: Overriding package files22804
Node: Authoring Recipes23187
Node: Recipe format23618
Node: Dependencies24287
Node: Byte Compilation24633
Node: Autoloads25199
Node: Build26325

End Tag Table