Bug#193367: emacs-goodies-el: Can't remove package properly

[Neil Roeth <neil@debian.org>]

On May 14, Peter S Galbraith (psg@debian.org) wrote:
 > Package: emacs-goodies-el
 > Version: 21.0-1
 > Severity: normal
 > 
 > I can't believe I never noticed this before, but it likely affects the
 > majority of Elisp package.  See if my reasoning is flawed...
 > 
 > If I do `apt-get remove emacs-goodies-el' which is a pretty method these
 > days, or if I `dpkg --remove emacs-goodies-el', the _config_ file
 > 
 > /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50emacs-goodies-el.el
 > 
 > stays in place.  The next time I start Emacs, it loads the file.  Since
 > I have not added a condition in this file about `emacs-goodies-el'
 > actually being installed, the elisp is evaluated anyway.
 > 
 > Then  can do:
 > 
 >  M-x apt-utils-show-package
 > 
 > and get the error:
 >  call-interactively: Cannot open load file: apt-utils
 > 
 > e.g. all my autoloads are setup, but they shouldn't.
 > 
 > A quick look at my system shows that the `gnus' package checks for this,
 > but few others.  I know I'm guilty.
 > 
 > Comments?

Good point.  I'll add such a test to my aplus-fsf-el package.  Just to make
sure we're all on the same page, is the following along the lines of what you
were thinking?

(let ((aplus-fsf-el-pkgdir (concat "/usr/share/"
				   (symbol-name debian-emacs-flavor)
				   "/site-lisp/aplus-fsf-el")))
 (if (file-exists-p aplus-fsf-el-pkgdir)
     (progn
       (debian-pkg-add-load-path-item aplus-fsf-el-pkgdir)
       (autoload 'a-mode "aplus" "Major mode for editing A+ code." t)
       ; other stuff that only applies if the aplus-fsf-el package is installed
)))

-- 
Neil Roeth