Re: Changes After Ubuntu Upgrade

[Reiner Steib]

On Mon, Jun 26 2006, Kenneth Jacker wrote:

>   rs> Probably the latter is not used because you have a separate Gnus
>   rs> package installed, cf. `M-x list-load-path-shadows RET'.
>
> OK, I had time to look into this more ...
>
> It is a "load path" issue.  Here is the value of my default
> 'load-path' (sorry for the length!):
>
>        ("/usr/share/emacs21/site-lisp/oneliner-el"
[...]
>        "/usr/share/emacs21/site-lisp/yacas"
>        "/etc/emacs21" "/etc/emacs"
>        "/usr/local/share/emacs/21.4/site-lisp"
>        "/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp"
>        "/usr/share/emacs/21.4/site-lisp"
[...]
>        "/usr/share/emacs/21.4/site-lisp/gnus"

Is this "No Gnus v0.4"?

[...]
>        "/usr/share/emacs/21.4/lisp/international"
>  ==>   "/usr/share/emacs/21.4/lisp/gnus"
>        "/usr/share/emacs/21.4/lisp/eshell"
>        "/usr/share/emacs/21.4/lisp/emulation"
>        "/usr/share/emacs/21.4/lisp/emacs-lisp"
>        "/usr/share/emacs/21.4/lisp/calendar")
>
> Once I added "/usr/share/emacs/21.4/lisp/gnus" to the front, I was
> able to use the 5.9.0 version of 'gnus'.  (Note a copy of that path
> *is* in the fifth-to-the-last entry above).

Note that 5.9 is quite old.  I'd recommend to use 5.10.8 ("No Gnus" is
the development version).

> Some questions:
>
>   o Where is 'load-path' initialized?  

IIRC the initial value is already set at compile time on GNU/Linux.
Then, on startup, subdirectories of load-path directories are added if
the directory contains `subdirs.el' (see the function
`normal-top-level-add-subdirs-to-load-path' for details).

In Emacs 22, this results in the following `load-path':

 "$PREFIX/share/emacs/$VERSION/site-lisp"
 "$PREFIX/share/emacs/site-lisp"
 "$PREFIX/share/emacs/site-lisp/..." (-> subdirs.el)
 [...]
 "$PREFIX/share/emacs/$VERSION/leim"
 "$PREFIX/share/emacs/$VERSION/lisp"
 "$PREFIX/share/emacs/$VERSION/lisp/..." (-> subdirs.el)
 [...]

>   o Should the "/usr/share/emacs21/*" entries precede the
>     "/usr/share/emacs/21.4/*" ones?
>
>   o Both "/etc/emacs" and "/etc/emacs21" exist ... is that correct?
>
>   o Might the problem have something to do with the contents of
>     /etc/{emacs,emacs21}/* ?

All this is specific to Ubuntu (or probably Debian).  It should be
documented in distribution's Emacs policy document (I seem to recall
that several Emacs developers don't like the directory layout of
Debian).

>   o Am I using older versions of *other* things, too (e.g., 'eshell')?

Lookup "eshell" in the output of `M-x list-load-path-shadows RET'.

> Finally, here are all relevant installed Dapper packages:
>
>        emacs-goodies-el/dapper uptodate 26.4-1
>        emacs21/dapper uptodate 21.4a-3ubuntu2
>        emacs21-bin-common/dapper uptodate 21.4a-3ubuntu2
>        emacs21-common/dapper uptodate 21.4a-3ubuntu2
>        emacs21-el/dapper uptodate 21.4a-3ubuntu2
>        emacsen-common/dapper uptodate 1.4.17

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
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