bug#29614: 25.2; package.el upgrade problem

[Live System User]

Hi,

        I ran into the following problem when using package.el to
          upgrade my installed packages to the latest available
          versions:

1. M-x package-list-packages

2. U             `package-menu-mark-upgrades'
   A message displaying in the echo-area that 4 packages are marked
   to be upgraded -- 3 from Gnu Elpa and 1 from Melpa

3. x             `package-menu-execute'
  The upgrades comenced starting with the one from Melpa.  After that
  one finished, I got the following message in the echo-area:

       elpa.gnu.org/443 Name or service not known

  I try "x" `package-menu-execute' again and get the same
  "elpa.gnu.org/443 Name or service not known" message.  Must be a
  transient error at elpa.gnu.org because I can "ping" it:

PING elpa.gnu.org (208.118.235.89) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from elpa.gnu.org (208.118.235.89): icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=34.5
ms

  I'll exit out of package.el's menu and try again later...

4. q             `quit-window

  I look at my ~/.emacs.d/elpa and I see two versions of the Melpa
  package that I just upgraded -- the old/obsoleted one and the newly
  upgraded one.  Ordinarily, the obsoleted ome is removed at the
  conclusion of an (successful) upgrade.  But since this upgrade wasn't
  completely successful -- the 3 Gnu Elpa packages failed to be
  upgraded even though the Melpa one was successfully upgraded -- I'm
  guessing that's why the obsoleted one wasn't removed.

  Some time has passed and I try to upgrade my packages again.

5. M-x package-list-packages

6. U             `package-menu-mark-upgrades'
   Now only 3 packages are marked to be upgraded, all from Gnu Elpa,
   as expected.

7. x             `package-menu-execute'
   This time the upgrades are successful for the Gnu Elpa packages and
   the obsolete Gnu Elpa packages are removed.

   However, the obsolete Melpa package remains.

   How does one deal with this situation with an unwanted obsolete
   package?
   
   Will it remain until a newer version of the package in the future
   obsoletes today's current version and then remove both/all obsoleted
   versions?

   Or will only the previous obsolete version be removed leaving any
   other ancestor?

   [I can see that if package.el supports "pinning" a specific version
   of a package so that it wont be removed might make an automatic
   removal of obsoleted previous package's ancestor problematic to
   guard against.]

  So does this now become a manual removal process in this reported
  situation?  If so, then are there steps to do this within package;el
  (besides the obvious remove the package compeletely to get rid of
  ALL versions of the package -- both lastest and ancestors -- and then
  reinstall the package)?

  Or will one have to just resort to deleting the package directory
  of the obsoleted version of the package manually?

  Thanks.
  



In GNU Emacs 25.2.1 (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.20.10)
 of 2017-05-02 built on buildvm-17.phx2.fedoraproject.org
Windowing system distributor 'Fedora Project', version 11.0.11803000
Configured using:
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 build_alias=x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu host_alias=x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu
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