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+title: Syncing Required Packages in Emacs
+date: 2013-12-30 11:30
+tags: emacs, wsu
+summary: A simple way to keep Emacs packages synced across machines using package.el
+---
+
+I use Emacs on several different computers.  To keep my configuration
+consistent across all of them, I do what many people do and made the
+`~/.emacs.d` directory a
+[git repository](https://github.com/davexunit/.emacs.d).  I don’t like
+to keep copies of all of the Elisp extensions that I use, such as
+paredit and geiser, in this repository.  Instead, I prefer to use
+package.el (introduced in Emacs 24) with the
+[MELPA](https://melpa.org) repository.  This saves me from having to
+manually keep all of the extensions I use up-to-date, but requires
+another method to keep useful packages in sync between computers.
+
+There’s a project called
+[Pallet](https://github.com/rdallasgray/pallet) that solves this
+problem, but it was too heavy for my liking.  Instead, I wrote a short
+function that simply iterates over a list of required packages and
+installs those that are not currently installed.
+
+```elisp
+;; Additional packages that I use.
+(setq required-packages
+      '(better-defaults
+        elfeed
+        geiser
+        ido-ubiquitous
+        js2-mode
+        magit
+        paredit
+        rainbow-delimiters
+        smex))
+
+(defun install-missing-packages ()
+  "Install all required packages that haven’t been installed."
+  (interactive)
+  (mapc (lambda (package)
+          (unless (package-installed-p package)
+            (package-install package)))
+        required-packages)
+  (message "Installed all missing packages!"))
+```
+
+Now, it’s as easy as typing `M-x install-missing-packages RET` when
+starting Emacs for the first time on a new computer to download all of
+the extensions that I need.  Note that before calling
+`install-missing-packages` you must have already initialized the
+package manager via the `package-initialize` function.  This approach
+does require some manual bookkeeping in order to keep the
+`required-packages` list up-to-date with your workflow, but I haven’t
+found it to be problematic.
+
+Update: If this solution is too simplistic for you, you should check
+out [use-package](https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package), which
+reddit user [lunayorn](http://www.reddit.com/user/lunaryorn) pointed
+out to me.  Thanks!
+
+Check out the comments on
+[reddit](http://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/1u0xr4/quick_hack_syncing_required_packages_in_emacs/).