package manager for elvish

[huiyiqun]

We need a solution to share useful elvish scripts and keep them up-to-date.

[xiaq]

Let us make epm, elvish package manager. The design is open for discussion.

API

• epm:install a:b:c url installs url as module a:b:c.
  • What should the syntax of url look like? We can start with support for GitHub, but it should be extensible to other kinds of sources
• epm:update a:b:c updates module a:b:c.
  • Should we simply do git -C ~/.elvish/a/b/c pull, or keep record of where the module was originally installed from?
• epm:update-all updates all modules.
  • Should we attempt to update those modules not installed using epm?

Usage

I can think of two ways to add a new module a:b:c to your configuration, neither of which is perfect:

1. Use epm:install a:b:c url to install, and after the command completes, add use a:b:c to ~/.elvish/rc.elv.
   • When copying the dotfile to another machine, one has to repeat the epm:install calls 😢
2. Put epm:install a:b:c url; use a:b:c in ~/.elvish/rc.elv. The next time elvish starts, the modules will be installed.
   • We need to make epm:install 1) concurrency-safe 2) do nothing when a:b:c exists, which is no big deal.
   • Elvish is blocked before the installation completes 😢

[xiaq]

The epm module has been implemented and documented in https://elvish.io/ref/epm.html.