%% MELPA

[ [Packages](#current-list-of-packages) ]
[ [Installing](#installing) ]
[ [Known Issues](#known-issues) ]
[ [Updating Packages](#updating-packages) ]
[ [Development](#development) ]

*MELPA* or *Milkypostman's ELPA* or *Milkypostman's Experimental Lisp Package Repository* if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

> a repository for development versions of Emacs packages (hot from the repo).

**Last Update:** *<%= Time.now.strftime("%Y.%m.%d %H:%M") %>*

## Current List of Packages

<%
  def parse str
    # credit to: http://stackoverflow.com/q/3128406/154508
    tokens = str.scan(/#{Regexp.escape("(")}|#{Regexp.escape(")")}|[a-zA-Z0-9\-\_\+]+/)

    stack = [[]]

    tokens.each do |tok|
      case tok
      when "("
        stack << []
      when ")"
        stack[-2] << stack.pop
      else
        stack[-1] << tok
      end
    end

    return stack[-1][-1]
  end


  headers = ["Package", "Version", "Description"]

  data = parse(File.open("../packages/archive-contents").read)[1..-1]


  data.map! do |row|
    [row[0], row[1][0], row[3..-2].join(" ")]
  end
  data.sort!

  colwidth = [0,0,0]

  data.map do |row|
    row.to_enum(:each_with_index).map do |e,i|
      colwidth[i] = [colwidth[i], e.length].max
    end
  end
%>
<%=
    headers.to_enum(:each_with_index).map{
      |h,i| h + " "*(colwidth[i]-h.length) }.join(" ")
%>
<%= colwidth.map{ |w| "-"*w }.join(" ") %>
<%=
    data.map{ |row|
    row.to_enum(:each_with_index).map{ |c,i|
       c + " "*(colwidth[i]-c.length)
       }.join(" ")
    }.join("\n")
%>


## Installing

To add the repository put this before the call to `package-initialize`
in your `init.el` file.

<!-- <script src="https://gist.github.com/1679158.js"> </script> -->

    (add-to-list 'package-archives
                 '("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/") t)
    

Please read about [known issues](#known-issues) below before
attempting to install multiple packages at once.

### Customizations

There is currently no way in `package.el` to exclude or include versions.  So to remedy this I ahve created a package that will allow you to enable only certain packages or exclude certain packages.  You can install the package by pasting this into yoru `*scratch*` buffer and evaluating it.

    (progn
      (switch-to-buffer
       (url-retrieve-synchronously
        "https://raw.github.com/milkypostman/melpa/master/melpa.el"))
      (package-install-from-buffer  (package-buffer-info) 'single))


You can then customize two variables:

`melpa-package-enable`
:   List of MELPA packages to enable.  Empty list enables all packages.

`melpa-package-exclude`
:   List of MELPA package to exclude.  This list trumps those specified in `melpa-package-enable`.


## Known Issues

Due to the way the HTTP routing works on my provider, the HTTP/1.1
connection will time out for long package installs -- where the
package is large and takes a while to compile -- like *magit* or *evil*.

<!-- <script src="https://gist.github.com/1679208.js"> </script> -->

    (setq url-http-attempt-keepalives nil)

This makes things a tad more slow but means that the install completes
correctly. Otherwise the connection times out and the install goes haywire.

### Fixes for `package.el`

**Note:** *These fixes are included in the `melpa.el` package.*

There are a number of small bugs in Emacs24's `package.el`. First,
when installing dependencies, the packages were not getting
initialized.  Second, the order for dependencies was coming out
backwards for what I needed.  Both problems are
 easily patched by some *advice*.  
 
<!-- <script src="https://gist.github.com/1679232.js"> </script> -->

    (defadvice package-compute-transaction
      (before
       package-compute-transaction-reverse (package-list requirements)
       activate compile)
      "reverse the requirements"
      (setq requirements (reverse requirements))
      (print requirements))
    
If you are not using Emacs24 from HEAD, you may also need this to initialize packages after they are downlaoded and installed.

    (defadvice package-download-tar
      (after package-download-tar-initialize activate compile)
      "initialize the package after compilation"
      (package-initialize))
    
    (defadvice package-download-single
      (after package-download-single-initialize activate compile)
      "initialize the package after compilation"
      (package-initialize))
    

## Updating Packages

`package.el` now includes a mechanism to upgrade packages.  After running `package-list-pacages`, type *u* (mark Upgradable packages) and then *x* (eXecute the installs and deletions).  When it's done installing all the packages it will ask if you want to delete the obsolete packages and so you can hit *y* (Yes).

If you run into a problem installing or upgrading, you may need to go into your `~/.emacs.d/elpa/` directory and delete packages that are installed multiple times.  This can happen when the install times out (see [Known Issues](#known-issues)).

## Development

[https://github.com/milkypostman/melpa](https://github.com/milkypostman/melpa)

Contributions are welcome.  Currently, the builder only supports
packages using git, subversion, mercurial, and darcs.  This covers
most of the packages that I am interested in.