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I would like to make a few changes to a package installed via package-install. What's the canonical way to do so?
I understand that it would probably involve:
list-packages. (Is this necessary?)~/.emacs.d (e.g. by cloning the Git repository)Uninstalling the package via list-packages. (Is this necessary?)
Not at all. Just make sure that the git clone is ahead of ELPA on load-path.
Place the package files manually somewhere under ~/.emacs.d (e.g. by cloning the Git repository) Tell Emacs to load the package from the new location. (How?)
I have a dedicated git/ directory in my site-lisp. And just clone there. This code will put all packages in git/ ahead of ELPA on the load-path:
(package-initialize)
(let ((emacs-git (expand-file-name "git/" emacs-d)))
(mapc (lambda (x)
(add-to-list 'load-path (expand-file-name x emacs-git)))
(delete ".." (directory-files emacs-git))))
emacs-d? I can't find it on my system
Sep 2, 2022 at 17:28
If you wish to use the package manager for this (which is entirely reasonable -- it will take care of byte-compilation, ensure all the autoloads are processed, etc), then:
Copy the package (somewhere that isn't in your Emacs load-path) and make whatever changes you wish to make.
If it is a simple package built from a single .el file (ignoring *.elc, *-pkg.el, and *-autoloads.el files):
Update the version string in the .el file.
Invoke package-install-file on the modified .el file.
If it is a complex package built from multiple files:
Update the version string in the *-pkg.el file
If you're running Emacs 25+, invoke package-install-file on the directory.
If you're running Emacs 24, create a tar file of the directory (include the directory itself; not just its contents), and invoke package-install-file on the tar file.
You should be able to safely delete the unnecessary files from your modified source for the package (e.g. *.elc, *-autoloads.el, and for the simple package case, *-pkg.el).
See C-hig (elisp) Packaging for more information.
package-install-file necessary every time I want an edit to take effect? And, will the package manager clobber my installed package when the upstream package is updated?
Mar 26, 2016 at 5:06
package-install-file every time, unless you took to editing and re-compiling the installed versions under ~/.emacs.d/elpa directly (but I don't think that's what you were wanting to do).
package-install-file.
Or install use-package, and explicitly supply the load path this way:
(use-package example
:load-path "/directory/of/your/package")
