Subject: 29.4; use-package-ensure does not get autoloaded (in time?)

From: Thalis Charakas <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2024 16:09:44 +0000

The variable `use-package-always-ensure` cannot be used reliably in
init.el or early-init.el without adding the line `(require
'use-package-ensure)` or `(require 'use-package)`.

I tested the following init.el files, each time with a completely empty
.emacs.d directory. Note that I'm using which-key as an example of a
package that is not included in Emacs (29.4), the same results happened with
other packages. What I include in this report is the entirety of the
init.el files tested.

The following init.el file failed to download which-key:

(setq use-package-always-ensure t)
(use-package which-key
  :init
  (setq which-key-idle-delay 0.1)
  :config
  (which-key-mode))

With the error:

⛔ Error (use-package): Cannot load which-key

Even when putting `(setq use-package-always-ensure t)` in an
early-init.el and having only that line in it, and having only the
`use-package` statement in the init.el

The following init.el files downloaded which-key:

1.

(use-package which-key
  :ensure t
  :init
  (setq which-key-idle-delay 0.1)
  :config
  (which-key-mode))

2.

(setq use-package-always-ensure t)
(use-package which-key ;; after 30 will be in
  :ensure t
  :init
  (setq which-key-idle-delay 0.1)
  :config
  (which-key-mode))

3.

(require 'use-package-ensure)
(setq use-package-always-ensure t)
(use-package which-key
  :init
  (setq which-key-idle-delay 0.1)
  :config
  (which-key-mode))

4.

(require 'use-package)
(setq use-package-always-ensure t)
(use-package which-key ;; after 30 will be in
  :init
  (setq which-key-idle-delay 0.1)
  :config
  (which-key-mode))

The reason I consider this a bug is because in my real much bigger
init.el, which does not require `use-package-ensure` or `use-package`,
when opening Emacs with nothing else in the .emacs.d directory, some
packages get downloaded and some don't. This makes me think that at some
point `use-package-ensure` gets loaded. Also since `use-package` is
autoloaded, requiring it should not make a difference.

The user jmml in the #emacs IRC channel found that requiring
`use-package-ensure` or `use-package` fixes the problem.

In GNU Emacs 29.4 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.38,
 cairo version 1.16.0) of 2024-07-22, modified by Debian built on
 x86-ubc-01
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.12201009
System Description: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)

Configured using:
 'configure --build x86_64-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr
 --sharedstatedir=/var/lib --libexecdir=/usr/libexec
 --localstatedir=/var/lib --infodir=/usr/share/info
 --mandir=/usr/share/man --with-libsystemd --with-pop=yes
 --enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/29.4/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/29.4/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp
 --with-sound=alsa --without-gconf --with-mailutils
 --with-native-compilation --build x86_64-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr
 --sharedstatedir=/var/lib --libexecdir=/usr/libexec
 --localstatedir=/var/lib --infodir=/usr/share/info
 --mandir=/usr/share/man --with-libsystemd --with-pop=yes
 --enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/29.4/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/29.4/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp
 --with-sound=alsa --without-gconf --with-mailutils
 --with-native-compilation --with-cairo --with-x=yes
 --with-x-toolkit=gtk3 --with-toolkit-scroll-bars 'CFLAGS=-g -O2
 -ffile-prefix-map=/build/reproducible-path/emacs-29.4+1=. -fstack-protector-strong
 -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wall' 'CPPFLAGS=-Wdate-time
 -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2' LDFLAGS=-Wl,-z,relro'

Configured features:
ACL CAIRO DBUS FREETYPE GIF GLIB GMP GNUTLS GPM GSETTINGS HARFBUZZ JPEG
JSON LCMS2 LIBOTF LIBSELINUX LIBSYSTEMD LIBXML2 M17N_FLT MODULES
NATIVE_COMP NOTIFY INOTIFY PDUMPER PNG RSVG SECCOMP SOUND SQLITE3
THREADS TIFF TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS TREE_SITTER WEBP X11 XDBE XIM XINPUT2
XPM GTK3 ZLIB

Important settings:
  value of $LC_MONETARY: el_GR.UTF-8
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: el_GR.UTF-8
  value of $LC_TIME: el_GR.UTF-8
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=ibus
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
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  global-eldoc-mode: t
  eldoc-mode: t
  show-paren-mode: t
  electric-indent-mode: t
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  line-number-mode: t
  indent-tabs-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message mailcap yank-media puny dired
dired-loaddefs rfc822 mml mml-sec password-cache epa derived epg rfc6068
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eldoc paren electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type
elisp-mode mwheel term/x-win x-win term/common-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd
fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list replace newcomment
text-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page tab-bar menu-bar rfn-eshadow
isearch easymenu timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax
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native-compile emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 16 77029 12726)
 (symbols 48 7140 0)
 (strings 32 19388 1382)
 (string-bytes 1 591546)
 (vectors 16 15412)
 (vector-slots 8 325849 20050)
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