Subject: Re: bug#26455: Emacs Packaging

From: Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2019 02:58:09 +0100

Glenn Morris <[email-masked]> writes:

> Muto wrote:
>
>> Although technically not a bug, the "Download" section in the Emacs
>> website is somewhat vague in describing how to install Emacs in
>> GNU/Linux. Rather than the options "build from source" or "use an
>> older version", I believe Emacs should ship packaged with a tool such
>> as
>> AppImage (http://appimage.org)
>> Or FlatPak (http://flatpak.org).
>> This way installation on GNU/Linux systems would be simplified
>> significantly and on top of that users would have easy access to the
>> latest version rather than installing from a repository.
>
> Staying paranoid as requested:
>
> Do these approaches mean that the Emacs developers then become
> responsible for shipping all the required dependent libraries,
> monitoring them for security issues, and updating them when needed,
> rather than relying on the distribution to do that?
>
>> --Stay paranoid, and happy hacking! -Muto

Glenn Morris <[email-masked]> writes:

> PS If these technologies take off, this perhaps feels like something
> that should be addressed at the GNU level rather than the Emacs level.
> (Perhaps guix already provides some version of this?)

While I think this is not a bad idea in and of itself, I think this is
beyond the scope of the Emacs project at the moment given our scarce
resources.  Or perhaps it's better addressed at the GNU level as Glenn
suggests.

I'd therefore suggest to close this as wontfix.  Any other opinions?

Best regards,
Stefan Kangas