[PATCH][for 21.0] Basic package deletion & maintenance

SL Baur <steve(a)xemacs.org&gt; wrote: OK, here are some patches that provide a BASIC package delete capability. Note that these are relative to B55 *plus* my "[URGENT PATCH] Visual package installer" patch. A ChangeLog is appended. Comments: * There's no nice user interface to the package deletion functions. The user has to manually do a `M-x package-get-delete-package'. * Deleting a package will use any exiting pkginfo/MANIFEST.<package> file. Installing a package file will also create a MANIFEST.<package> file, but only if one is not included with the package. * There's no dependency checking (to be added later). The user can currently delete a package that is required by other packages. Lisp ChangeLog: =============================================================================== 1998-09-20 Darryl Okahata <darrylo(a)sr.hp.com&gt; * packages.el: Added new function, `package-delete-name', to delete existing packages from the installed package database (`packages-package-list'). Also added the "pkginfo" directory to `packages-special-base-regexp', so that the pkginfo directory would not get added to `late-packages'. * package-admin.el: Added ability to delete an installed package (added low-level function, `package-admin-delete-package'). Understands how to use the pkginfo/MANIFEST.<package> file to delete the package. When installing a package, will also create a MANIFEST.* file if one is not provided by the package. If the MANIFEST.* doesn't exist when deleting a package, the functions will fall back to attempting to delete any package-specific lisp directory. * package-get.el: Moved some functions to package-admin.el. Added interactive function `package-get-delete-package', for use by users for deleting a package. Also modified to not require the prescence of efs. =============================================================================== [ Am I the only one uncomfortable with these last-minute changes to 21.0? Yes, these features are nice-to-have, but are they really required? I've got a lot of package installation enhancements that I'd like to make (Greg Klanderman made a lot of great suggestions), but we'd never release 21.0 if we keep on dribbling in these changes. ] -- Darryl Okahata darrylo(a)sr.hp.com DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not constitute the support, opinion, or policy of Hewlett-Packard, or of the little green men that have been following him all day.