Re: package-update-all from command line

[Tassilo Horn]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

Hi Lars,

>> When seeing that command being introduced, I've also made my own version
>>
>>   (defun th/package-update-all ()
>>     (interactive)
>>     (package-refresh-contents)
>>     (package-update-all (called-interactively-p)))
>>
>> because package-update-all doesn't seem to update the package database.
>> I can't see the "Contacting host: elpa.gnu.org" message and the same for
>> the other archives.
>
> Yes, perhaps -update-all should also call -refresh-contents?

IMHO, yes.  The same question applies to `package-update' but there it
would be annoying if it always refreshed first when updating one package
after the other.  So maybe the refreshes should be restricted to "there
hasn't been a refresh in the last <N> <TIMEUNIT>".

> By the way, the following also seems to work:
>
> ./src/emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs -f package-refresh-contents -f 
> package-update-all

Indeed.  So you another way to handle this issue was to just document
the current behavior and add a command line update-all recipe.

However, your "emacs -batch -l ~/.emacs ..." recipe doesn't work with
every init file, at least it didn't work with mine.  I use
`user-init-file' in my ~/.emacs.d/init.el which is nil if emacs is
started with -batch, and it seems that packages are not initialized so
emacs complained about void-function use-package.  I've catered for it
in my init file now but I guess -batch -l <init-file> cannot be
recommended as a general practice for this purpose.

Bye,
Tassilo