I used cask package to generate a package tar file for my local fork of ensime, and added it to my package-archives using customize-option. However, I then got this backtrace when attempting to list-packages:
Debugger entered--Lisp error: (file-error "Opening input file" "no such file or directory" "/home/hackthetower/ensime-emacs/dist/archive-contents")
insert-file-contents("/home/hackthetower/ensime-emacs/dist/archive-contents")
package--download-one-archive(("hackthetower" . "/home/hackthetower/ensime-emacs/dist") "archive-contents")
#[0 "\301\300\302\"\207" [("hackthetower" . "/home/hackthetower/ensime-emacs/dist") package--download-one-archive "archive-contents"] 3 "\n\n(fn)"]()
funcall(#[0 "\301\300\302\"\207" [("hackthetower" . "/home/hackthetower/ensime-emacs/dist") package--download-one-archive "archive-contents"] 3 "\n\n(fn)"])
package-refresh-contents()
list-packages(nil)
call-interactively(list-packages record nil)
command-execute(list-packages record)
helm-M-x(nil "list-packages")
call-interactively(helm-M-x nil nil)
command-execute(helm-M-x)
Indeed, this archive-contents file mentioned in the backtrace doesn't exist. How am I supposed to create it?
package-install, you'd be better served to try and create directly an installed package (i.e. create directly the package's directory in~/.emacs.d/elpa/). IOW let Cask install the package.