Emacs doesn't search inside elpa directory while loading

Question

OS: Windows XP, Emacs: 24.5.1.

I installed bookmark+ package using Melpa. It was put into directory:

~/.emacs.d/elpa/bookmark+-20151107.847

When I put (require 'bookmark+) to the end of ~/.emacs, I get an error:

Warning (initialization): An error occurred while loading `.emacs':

File error: Cannot open load file, no such file or directory, bookmark+

But after Emacs is fully loaded, if I evaluate form (require 'bookmark+) --- it loads the appropriate module.

So, it seems, that it doesn't search for the library in ~/.emacs.d/elpa/bookmark+-20151107.847 directory while .emacs is being loaded.

How to fix?

This is a duplicate of StackOverflow question Emacs 24 Package System Initialization Problems. — phils, Commented May 1, 2016 at 11:43

Stefan · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-27 21:30:44Z

2

Add the following line to your init.el file before you require the package (require 'bookmark+).

(package-initialize)

Stefan

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answered May 3, 2016 at 8:24

husky

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3

This is not the way to deal with ELPA packages.
– phils
Commented May 3, 2016 at 9:20
Sorry for not reading the question so carefully. So package-initializewill be needed.
– husky
Commented May 3, 2016 at 12:28
2

Adding manually to load-path was indeed not right, but calling package-initialize is the right solution. Emacs-25 will even automatically add that call to your ~/.emacs (in some cases) if you haven't done so yet.
– Stefan
Commented Jul 27, 2016 at 21:32
@YoungFrog: the autoloads will be setup by package-initialize, so calling package-initialize is the right thing to do regardless of whether you want to require the package or not.
– Stefan
Commented Jun 27, 2017 at 19:10
@Stefan I meant that since the autoloads exist, require is not needed. And if require is not used, then the problem disappears (because package-initialize is called by emacs). [But my comment was badly written (it took me a few seconds to understand it), so I've just deleted it.]
– YoungFrog
Commented Jun 27, 2017 at 20:17

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