Re: Easy configuration of a site-lisp directory

[Stefan Monnier]

> SM> Admittedly, `elpa-admin.el` doesn't provide that "out of the box", but I'd
> SM> welcome changes to improve this use case.  It go become an alternative to
> SM> `straight.el`.
> I was hoping ELPASO (https://github.com/dickmao/elpaso) would be the
> elpa-admin-aware alternative to straight.  I do appreciate that "not invented 
> here"
> is reason enough not to look into someone else's project.

I wasn't aware (or forgot about) that one.  AFAICT it generates
a tarball from a remote Git repository and then installs it
"normally", right?  I think Philip intends instead to have the local Git
clone *be* the installed package (which is also how I use
elpa-admin.el).

Basically, the way I do it is to setup a local nongnu.git clone with
something like `git clone ../nongnu.git; cd nongnu; make`.
Then add this local `.../nongnu` to your `package-directory-list`.
This is done once and for all.

Once that is done, installing a new package amounts to:

- edit `nongnu/elpa-packages` to add the package's spec
- `cd .../nongnu; make packages/PKG>; make packages/PKG>`
- That's it

[ The second `make` is because the first only fetches the package and
  crates the worktree, while the second then builds the <PKG>-pkg.el
  and <PKG>-autoloads.el and compiles the files.  ]

Packages can be updated with:

- `cd .../nongnu; make worktrees; make`.

But as it stands, this comes with its fair share of rough edges, some of
which are plain bugs in `elpa-admin.el`, others are simply
missing features.

The main advantage for me is that things like `C-h f` bring me straight
to the Git-managed source code.


        Stefan