Re: Emacs per-package startup files

["Brian C. White" <bcwhite@verisim.com>]

> Hmm. As for dpkg needing install-elisp, I'm not quite sure I buy that,
> because it would seem to argue that *any* install-* should be included
> in dpkg. Then again, there is only install-info which *is* in dpkg,
> and install-mime which is in mime-support which has it's own
> justification. There aren't any others...

I agree that "install-elisp" should be the responsibility of emacs.
Packages that want to use it should put an

	if [ -x /sbin/install-elisp ]
	then
		[...]
	fi

around the install/uninstall code.  This will allow packages to take
advantage of it if available, but not actually depend on emacs being
installed.  This is the line I've taken with mime-support.

There is a disadvantage that installing emacs after installing a
package ("p") that tries to call "install-elisp" will mean that
"p" is completely unknown to emacs until "p" is either reinstalled
or upgraded.  I personally don't see this as a problem as upgrades
happen fairly regularly.

Of course, the above problem only exists if "install-elisp" does some
setup work, as "install-mime" does.


> So, do these files go in /var/lib/emacs, /etc/emacs, or
> /usr/lib/emacs/site-lisp, and why?  I can set it up and send changes
> to the emacs package maintainers this weekend if that gets worked
> out...

I'd vote for "/usr/lib/emacs/site-lisp".  Why?  Because "/var/lib/emacs"
is for files that can't be on a read-only filesystem and "/etc/emacs" is
for user config files and the like.

                                        Brian
                               ( bcwhite@verisim.com )

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