https://github.com/melpa/melpa

Recipes and build machinery for the biggest Emacs package repo
https://github.com/melpa/melpa

Last synced: about 1 month ago
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Recipes and build machinery for the biggest Emacs package repo

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/melpa/melpa
• Owner: melpa
• License: other
• Created: 2011-10-05T05:50:47.000Z (about 13 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2024-05-28T21:00:00.000Z (7 months ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-05-29T18:57:39.103Z (7 months ago)
• Language: Emacs Lisp
• Homepage: https://melpa.org
• Size: 12.7 MB
• Stars: 2,687
• Watchers: 83
• Forks: 2,404
• Open Issues: 110
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.org
  • License: LICENSE.md

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• awesome-starred - melpa - Recipes and build machinery for the biggest Emacs package repo (Emacs Lisp)

README

        
# MELPA

[![Build Status](https://github.com/melpa/melpa/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/melpa/melpa/actions/workflows/ci.yml)

MELPA is a growing collection of `package.el`-compatible Emacs Lisp

packages built automatically on our server from the upstream source

code using simple recipes. (Think of it as a server-side version of

[`el-get`], or even [Homebrew].)

Packages are updated at intervals throughout the day.

To browse available packages, check out the

[archive index page][MELPA].

Adding packages is as simple as submitting a new recipe as a pull

request; read on for details.

## Table of Contents

* [Usage](#usage)

* [Contributing](#contributing)

* [Recipe Format](#recipe-format)

* [Build Scripts](#build-scripts)

* [API](#api)

* [Configuration](#configuration)

* [Mirrors](#mirrors)

* [About](#about)

## Usage

To use the MELPA repository, you'll need an Emacs with `package.el`,

i.e., Emacs 24.1 or greater. To test TLS support you can visit a HTTPS

URL, for example with `M-x eww RET https://wikipedia.org RET`.

Enable installation of packages from MELPA by adding an entry to

`package-archives` after `(require 'package)` and before the call to

`package-initialize` in your `init.el` or `.emacs` file:

```elisp

(require 'package)

(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/") t)

;; Comment/uncomment this line to enable MELPA Stable if desired.

;; See `package-archive-priorities` and `package-pinned-packages`.

;; Most users will not need or want to do this.

;; (add-to-list 'package-archives

;;              '("melpa-stable" . "https://stable.melpa.org/packages/") t)

(package-initialize)

```

Then just use `M-x package-list-packages` to browse and install

packages from MELPA and elsewhere.

Note that you'll need to run `M-x package-refresh-contents` or `M-x

package-list-packages` to ensure that Emacs has fetched the MELPA

package list before you can install packages with `M-x

package-install` or similar.

### MELPA Stable

Packages in MELPA are built directly from the latest package source

code in the upstream repositories, but we also build and publish

packages corresponding to the latest tagged code in those

repositories, where version tags exist. These packages are published

in a separate package archive called [MELPA Stable]. Most users should

prefer MELPA over MELPA Stable.

Some notes:

* If you leave the original MELPA server in your `package-archives`

  then by default you will get the *development* versions of packages

  and not the stable ones, because the development versions are higher.

* If your Emacs has the variables `package-pinned-packages` (available

  in 24.4 and later) and/or `package-archive-priorities`, you can

  customize or modify those variables as needed.

* You can use the [`package-filter`] package which we provide.

* You will probably want to remove all packages and then reinstall

  them. Any packages you already have installed from MELPA will never

  get "updated" to the stable version because of the way version

  numbering is handled.

Note that the MELPA maintainers do not use MELPA Stable themselves,

and do not particularly recommend its use.

## Contributing

See the [CONTRIBUTING.org] document.

## Recipe Format

Packages are specified by files in the `recipes` directory. You can

contribute a new package by adding a new file under `recipes` using

the following form (`[...]` denotes optional or conditional values),

```elisp

(

 :fetcher [git|github|gitlab|codeberg|sourcehut|hg]

 [:url ""]

 [:repo "user-name/repo-name"]

 [:commit "commit"]

 [:branch "branch"]

 [:version-regexp ""]

 [:files ("" ...)]

 [:old-names ( ...)])

```

* `package-name` a lisp symbol that has the same name as the package

  being specified.

* `:fetcher` specifies the type of repository the package is being

  maintained in.

  Melpa supports the Git and Mercurial version control systems and

  provides generic fetcher types for them: `git` and `hg`. When you

  use one of these fetchers, you must specify the `:url` property.

  Melpa also provides dedicated fetchers for certain Git forges (aka

  "Git repository hosting platforms"), which should always be

  preferred over the generic `git` fetcher. When using a dedicated

  fetcher, you must specify `:repo`, not `:url`. Currently these

  Git forge fetchers exist: [`github`], [`gitlab`], [`codeberg`] and

  [`sourcehut`].

  There are no dedicated fetchers for Mercurial. When a forge

  supports both Git and Mercurial, then the respective fetcher can

  only be used for Git repositories.  For Mercurial repositories

  always use the `hg` fetcher.

* `:url` specifies the URL of the version control repository. It is

  required for the generic `git` and `hg` fetchers and is invalid for

  forge-specific fetchers.

* `:repo` specifies the repository used by forge-specific fetchers

  and is of the form `user-name/repo-name`. It is required for

  forge-specific fetchers and is invalid for the generic fetchers.

  Note that user names in Sourcehut URLs are prefixed with `~`, that

  has to be omitted in the value of this property.

* `:commit` specifies the commit of the Git repository to checkout.

  The value will be passed to `git reset` in a repo where `upstream` is

  the original repository. Can therefore be either a SHA, if pointing

  at a specific commit, or a full ref prefixed with "origin/". Only

  used by the `git`-based fetchers.

* `:branch` specifies the branch of the Git repository to use. This is

  like `:commit`, but it adds the "origin/" prefix automatically. This

  must be specified when using a branch other than the default branch.

* `:version-regexp` is a regular expression for extracting a

  version-string from the repository tags. The default matches typical

  version tags such as `1.0`, `R16` or `v4.3.5`, so you should not

  override it unless necessary. For an unusual tag like "OTP-18.1.5",

  we might add `:version-regexp "[^0-9]*\\(.*\\)"` to strip the "OTP-"

  prefix. The captured portion of the regexp must be parseable by

  Emacs' `version-to-list` function.

* `:files` optional property specifying the Emacs Lisp libraries and

  info files used to build the package. Please do not override this if

  the default value (below) is adequate, which it should usually be:

  ```elisp

  '("*.el" "lisp/*.el"

    "dir" "*.info" "*.texi" "*.texinfo"

    "doc/dir" "doc/*.info" "doc/*.texi" "doc/*.texinfo"

    "docs/dir" "docs/*.info" "docs/*.texi" "docs/*.texinfo"

    (:exclude

     ".dir-locals.el" "lisp/.dir-locals.el"

     "test.el" "tests.el" "*-test.el" "*-tests.el"

     "lisp/test.el" "lisp/tests.el" "lisp/*-test.el" "lisp/*-tests.el"))

  ```

  Note that you should place Emacs Lisp libraries in the root of the

  repository or in the `lisp/` directory. Test files should be placed

  in the `test/` directory and they should not provide a feature.

  Likewise `NAME-pkg.el` isn't a library, so you might want to place

  it in the root directory, even when libraries reside in `lisp/`.

  Please do not track any third-party libraries and test utilities in

  your repository. If you absolutely must do it, then place these

  files in a directory dedicated to that purpose, alongside a file

  named `.nosearch`. The latter prevents various tools from adding the

  containing directory to the `load-path` or from otherwise getting

  confused.

  The elements of the `:files` list are glob-expanded to make a list

  of paths that will be copied into the root of the new package. This

  means a file like `lisp/foo.el` would become `foo.el` in the new

  package. To specify a destination subdirectory, use a list element

  of the form `(TARGET-DIR SOURCE-PATH ...)`.

  To exclude certain paths, use `(:exclude SOURCE-PATH ...)`.  There

  should only be one element that begins with `:exclude` and it should

  be the last element, though that is not enforced at this time.

  If your package requires some additional files, but is otherwise

  fine with the defaults, use the special element `:defaults` as the

  first element of the `:files` list.  This causes the default value

  shown above to be prepended to the specified file list. For example

  `:files (:defaults "snippets")` would cause the `snippets` subdir

  to be copied in addition to the defaults.

  **Warning:** Elements of `:files` are (no longer) processed in order

  because we feed these globs to `git log` or `hg log` to determine the

  last commit that touched a relevant file. These commands unfortunately

  process all exclude globs after all include globs. Therefore it is not

  possible to override the `:exclude` element that appears in `:defaults`

  in a later element of `:files`. This means that a package whose name

  ends with `-test` cannot use `:defaults`. Likewise if the name of a

  *library* (as opposed to a file implementing tests) ends with `-test.el`,

  then `:defaults` cannot be used.

  **Warning:** Once the appropriate commit has been determined

  `file-expand-wildcards` is used to determine the files matched by

  each glob. Unfortunately (unlike in a shell) a glob that begins with

  `*` may also match filenames that begin with `.`, so you might have

  to add exclude globs to prevent those from being included. `:defaults`

  takes care to exclude `.dir-locals.el`; if you don't use `:defaults`,

  then you might have to exclude that explicitly.

* `:old-names` specifies former names of the package, if any. The

  value is a list of symbols.

### Example: Single File Repository

`smex` is a repository that contains two files:

* `README.markdown`

* `smex.el`

Since there is only one `.el` file, this package only needs the

`:fetcher` and `:repo` specified,

```elisp

(smex :fetcher github :repo "nonsequitur/smex")

```

### Example: Multiple Packages in one Repository

Assume we have a repository containing three libraries `mypackage.el`,

`helm-mypackage.el`, and `persp-mypackage.el`. The latter two

libraries are optional and users who don't want to use the packages

`helm` and/or `perspective` should not be forced to install them just

so they can install `mypackage`. These libraries should therefore be

distributed as separate packages.

The three packages have to be declared in three separate files

`recipes/mypackage`, `recipes/helm-mypackage`, and

`recipes/persp-mypackage`:

```elisp

(mypackage

 :fetcher github

 :repo "someuser/mypackage"

 :files ("mypackage.el"))

```

```elisp

(helm-mypackage

 :fetcher github

 :repo "someuser/mypackage"

 :files ("helm-mypackage.el"))

```

```elisp

(persp-mypackage

 :fetcher github

 :repo "someuser/mypackage"

 :files ("persp-mypackage.el"))

```

### Example: Multiple Files in Multiple Directories

There are special cases where creation of the package comes from many

different sub-directories in the repository and the destination

sub-directories need to be explicitly set.

Consider the `flymake-perlcritic` recipe,

```elisp

(flymake-perlcritic

 :fetcher github

 :repo "illusori/emacs-flymake-perlcritic"

 :files ("*.el" ("bin" "bin/flymake_perlcritic")))

```

which will result in a package structure of,

```

flymake-perlcritic-YYYYMMDD

|-- bin

|   `-- flymake_perlcritic

|-- flymake-perlcritic-pkg.el

`-- flymake-perlcritic.el

```

Notice that specifying an entry in `:files` that is a list takes the

first element to be the destination directory.

But a better solution, given that we probably want to copy the

*entire* `snippets` directory to the root of the package, we could

just specify that directory. Consider the `pony-mode` recipe,

```elisp

(pony-mode

 :fetcher github

 :repo "davidmiller/pony-mode"

 :files ("src/*.el" "snippets"))

```

which generates the package,

```

pony-mode-YYYYMMDD

|-- pony-mode-pkg.el

|-- pony-mode.el

|-- pony-tpl.el

`-- snippets

    |-- html-mode

    |   |-- bl

    |   |-- ex

    |   |-- for

    |   |-- if

    |   |-- loa

    |   |-- sup

    |   |-- testc

    |   `-- {{

    `-- python-mode

        |-- auth-view

        |-- bn

        |-- model

        |-- modelform

        |-- render-to

        |-- testc

        `-- view

```

## Build Scripts

Building MELPA is all based around using the `Makefile` included in

the root repository directory. Described below are the actions that

accepted by the `Makefile`.

* `all` — build all packages under the `recipes/` directory and

  compiles the `index.html` file for the [MELPA] website.

* `recipes/` — build individual recipe ``. Built packages

  are put in the `packages/` folder with version corresponding to the

  date of the latest commit that modified at least one of the files

  specified by the recipe; given according to the `%Y%m%d` format.

* `json` — build all JSON files.

* `archive.json` — construct the `archive.json` file that will

  contain a JSON object of all compiled packages.

* `recipes.json` — construct the `recipes.json` file containing a

  JSON object of all packages available for building.

* `clean` — clean everything.

* `html` — build `index.html`.

* `clean-working` — remove all repositories that have been checked

  out to the `working/` directory.

* `clean-packages` — remove all compiled packages from the `packages`

  directory.

* `clean-json` — remove all JSON files.

Note that these scripts require an Emacs with `package.el` installed,

such as Emacs 24. If you have an older version of Emacs, you can get a

suitable `package.el` [here][package-old].

## API

All repository code is contained in the file

`package-build/package-build.el`. That code is maintained in a

[separate repository][`package-build`]: the version in the MELPA

repository is imported using `git subtree`.

### Functions

* `(package-build-all)` — build packages for all recipes in the

  directory specified by `package-build-recipes-dir`.

* `(package-build-archive NAME)` — interactive Emacs Lisp function

  to build a single archive. NAME is a symbol for the package to

  be built. Packages are staged in the directory specified by

  `package-build-working-dir` and built packages are placed in the

  directory specified by `package-build-archive-dir`. Packages are

  versioned based on the most recent commit date to package files

  based on commits to upstream package repository. For multi-file

  packages, the file `-pkg.el` is automatically generated and

  contains *description*, *version*, and *requires* information

  determined by searching `-pkg.el`, `.el`, and

  `-pkg.el.in`, if they exist in the repository.

### Variables

* `package-build-working-dir` — Staging area containing package

  repositories and package directories being built.

* `package-build-archive-dir` — Location to store `archive-contents`

  and any built packages.

* `package-build-recipes-dir` — Directory containing MELPA compatible

  recipes. See [Recipe Format](#recipe-format) section for more

  details.

## Configuration

Packages end up in the `packages/` directory by default.

This can be configured using the `package-build-archive-dir` variable.

Repositories are checked out to the `working/` directory by default.

This can be configured using the `package-build-working-dir` variable.

## Mirrors

Official mirrors are available (with many thanks to mirrorservice.org)

so that if melpa.org is down, packages can still be installed. The

following are the HTTP/HTTPS URLs to use in `package-archives` for

MELPA and MELPA Stable respectively:

* http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/melpa.org/packages/

* https://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/melpa.org/packages/

* http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/stable.melpa.org/packages/

* https://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/stable.melpa.org/packages/

Only the packages are mirrored, not the web site front-end itself.

_We are NOT responsible for the contents of any UNOFFICIAL mirror of

our packages._

Use `rsync` to get started with your own mirror:

```

rsync -avz --delete rsync://melpa.org/packages/ snapshots/

rsync -avz --delete rsync://melpa.org/packages-stable/ releases/

```

## About

*MELPA* is *Milkypostman's ELPA* or *Milkypostman's Experimental Lisp

Package Archive* if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

[CONTRIBUTING.org]: CONTRIBUTING.org

[MELPA]:            https://melpa.org/

[MELPA Stable]:     https://stable.melpa.org/

[`package-build`]:  https://github.com/melpa/package-build/

[`el-get`]:         https://github.com/dimitri/el-get/

[Homebrew]:         https://brew.sh/

[`git`]:            https://git-scm.com/

[`github`]:         https://github.com/

[`gitlab`]:         https://gitlab.com/

[`codeberg`]:       https://codeberg.org/

[`sourcehut`]:      https://git.sr.ht/

[`hg`]:             https://www.mercurial-scm.org/

[`package-filter`]: https://github.com/milkypostman/package-filter/

[package-old]:      https://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=emacs.git;a=blob_plain;hb=ba08b24186711eaeb3748f3d1f23e2c2d9ed0d09;f=lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el