From 3d029d49d2ae1809ae718986f9c9b7e2adf2fd6d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: David Thompson Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2016 07:37:22 -0400 Subject: Switch from Skribe to Markdown. --- posts/emacs-required-packages.md | 62 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 62 insertions(+) create mode 100644 posts/emacs-required-packages.md (limited to 'posts/emacs-required-packages.md') diff --git a/posts/emacs-required-packages.md b/posts/emacs-required-packages.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58874f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/emacs-required-packages.md @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +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/). -- cgit v1.2.3