Specify repository for specific packages.

[samontea]

I have a weird issue with proof general where I need to install it from melpa but not melpa-stable (because that version is 4 years out of date). It would be nice if we could override our package priorities for specific packages.

[cg505]

wait I thought you could do this somehow already or am I boosted

[samontea]

I only see us prioritizing repositories. Not allowing us to set repositories for specific packages. (source:

dot/.emacs.d/lisp/package/packup.el

Lines 41 to 73 in 167fc26

	(defun kotct/package-latest-available (package)
	"Get the lastest-available package-desc for PACKAGE, preferring repositories
	as listed in `package-archive-priorities' or `kotct/package-ordered-archives'.
	Does not automatically refresh the package list."
	(if (version< emacs-version "25.1")
	;; no package-archive-priorities, so use kotct/package-ordered-archives
	(let* ((versions (cdr (assoc package package-archive-contents)))
	;; check package-pinned-packages first
	(pinned-archive (cdr (assoc package package-pinned-packages)))
	(found-desc (when pinned-archive
	(car (cl-member pinned-archive versions
	:key #'package-desc-archive
	:test #'string=)))))
	(dolist (archive kotct/package-ordered-archives)
	(when (not found-desc)
	;; no match yet, keep looking
	(setf found-desc (car (cl-member archive versions
	:key #'package-desc-archive
	:test #'string=)))))
	found-desc)
	;; package-archive-priorities means we only have to check
	;; the first package-desc, because that should be from the best repo
	(cadr (assoc package package-archive-contents))))
	(defun kotct/package-up-to-date-p (package)
	"Return non-nil if PACKAGE is installed and up-to-date.
	Does not automatically refresh package list.
	Before Emacs 25, we have to manually check in preferred-repository order."
	(let ((latest (kotct/package-latest-available package)))
	(when latest
	(package-installed-p package (package-desc-version latest)))))

)

[rye]

I second this idea, it would help quite a lot. (One anecdotal example: lsp-mode has been broken for a long time since flycheck hasn't released a stable version for nearly three years, but melpa (vs. melpa-stable) is working fine.)

One idea for how to implement this is to adjust the form of kotct/dependency-list a bit. Now, instead of just a list of symbols, kotct/dependency-list could be a list of both symbols and structs (?)—something like (just an idea):

'(
  linum-off ; just follow the defaults; prefer the default repository and latest version
  ; ...
  (flycheck :repository "melpa") ; configure the repository
  ; ...
)

(This structure would lend itself to extension with more keywords like :version later on.)