-*-indented-text-*-

First, for the purposes of this policy, some terminology:

  <flavor> - a particular flavor of Emacs, for example:

    emacs
    xemacs21

  add-on package - any package which wishes to use the emacsen-common
    infrastructure, usually in order to byte-compile itself for some
    subset of the currently installed emacs flavors.

  <package> - the name of an add-on package, for example:

    auctex
    bbdb
    gnus

1) Guarding use of emacsen-common infrastructure

   Any use of the emacsen-common infrastructure must be guarded by a
   test for the existence of the emacsen-common installed state
   file. i.e.:

     if test -e /var/lib/emacsen-common/state/package/installed/emacsen-common
     then
        emacs-package-install ...
     fi

   Of course this requirement does not apply for the maintainer
   scripts of any package that depends on emacsen-common, which
   includes all add-on packages and all emacsen main <flavor>
   packages: emacs-lucid, xemacs21, etc.  So in practice, this guard
   should rarely be necessary.

2) Flavor indication

   Each flavor's binary must set the variable debian-emacs-flavor to be
   the same as the name of the debian-package.  For example, the
   emacs-lucid package does this in startup.el:

     (defconst debian-emacs-flavor 'emacs
       "A symbol representing the particular debian flavor of emacs running.
     Something like 'emacs, 'xemacs21, etc.")

   For now, debian-emacs-flavor should be defined regardless of the
   use of -q or --no-site-file.

3) Emacs startup strategy

  On startup each emacsen must call (debian-startup <flavor>).  During
  debian-startup, the relevant flavor-specific site-start.d files will
  be loaded via debian-run-directories, e.g:

    emacs:        /etc/emacs/site-start.d
    xemacs21:     /etc/xemacs21/site-start.d

  The next question is, "Where should we run debian-startup?"  The
  safest possibility, and the one I had originally intended was to
  modify lisp/startup.el to do the right thing, and I had also
  intended that --no-site-file would disable all of the Debian startup
  bits, including calling Debian startup.  So here's what emacs-lucid
  has in startup.el:

    ;; Debian startup
     (if site-run-file
        (progn
          ;; Load all the Debian package snippets.
          ;; It's in here because we want -q to kill it too.
          (if (load "debian-startup" t t nil)
              (debian-startup debian-emacs-flavor))
          ;; Now the normal site file...
          (load site-run-file t t nil)))

  This makes sure that Debian's bits are setup as early as possible,
  and requires only minor modifications to the emacs source.

  At a minimum debian-startup calls debian-run-directories which
  collects the union of all the file base names (i.e. without any .el
  or .elc extension, and without the directory component:
  i.e. /etc/xemacs21/site-start.d/50foo.elc => 50foo), then
  temporarily augments the emacs load path to include
  /etc/<flavor>/site-start.d, and calls (load base-name) in
  string< order.

4) /usr/share/<flavor>/site-lisp/

  This directory must be treated as part of the normal emacsen load
  path, and add-on packages should place their files there (see
  below), e.g.:

    emacs:     /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/
    xemacs21:  /usr/share/xemacs21/site-lisp/

5) Emacs add-on package support (examples below should make this much clearer)

  A) Each add-on package must add a "Depends: emacsen-common (>=
     2.0.8)" and include a file like this that indicates its
     emacsen-common compatibility level:

       /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/compat/<package>

     This file should contain a single integer, which at the moment
     should be 0.  (Currently, the file is just used to distinguish
     between old-style packages and new-style packages.)

  B) Each add-on package may place a file named the same as the
     package in

       /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/install/
       /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/remove/

     and the package must make these calls from the given maintainer
     scripts:
  
     preinst:
       /usr/lib/emacsen-common/emacs-package-install --preinst <package>

     postinst:
       /usr/lib/emacsen-common/emacs-package-install --postinst <package>

     prerm:
       /usr/lib/emacsen-common/emacs-package-remove --prerm <package>

     The postinst call must not be made until the package is
     completely configured and otherwise ready for use, and the prerm
     call must be made before any changes that would make the package
     not completely configured and ready for use.

     These calls will ensure that the add-on package's emacsen-common
     install and remove scripts are called at the appropriate times.
     In particular the postinst call will trigger the install script
     for every flavor of emacs that's already completely installed.
     If flavors are being installed simultaneously, the install script
     may be delayed until that flavor's postinst runs.

     When the install or remove script is called, the add-on package
     can assume that the flavor for which it is being invoked is
     completely installed (i.e. past the significant parts of its
     postinst).

     The install and remove scripts will be invoked with a single
     argument, the <flavor> being installed or removed.

     So if emacs and xemacs21 flavors are fully installed, installing
     add-on foo will result in calls to:

       /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/install/foo emacs
       /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/install/foo xemacs21

     emacs-package remove does the symmetric thing.

  C) Add-on packages need not declare a dependency on any emacs
     flavors, but they must declare a dependency on emacsen-common
     (see above, and (of course) must declare dependencies on any
     other relevant packages, including relevant add-on packages, or
     tools needed by the install/remove scripts.

     The emacsen-common infrastructure will ensure that the
     install/remove script invocations are ordered to respect
     inter-add-on package dependencies.

  D) Each add-on package has the right to place files into the
     following directories:

       /etc/<flavor>/site-start.d
       /usr/share/<flavor>/site-lisp/<package-name>

  E) If an add-on package compiles any of its Emacs Lisp sources
     (which must be compiled to a subdirectory of
     /usr/share/<flavor>/site-lisp/<package-name> -- see section 4
     above), the corresponding .el file must be available in the same
     directory as the corresponding .elc file, either directly, via
     symlink, or hardlink.

     For example, if add-on package foo produces
     /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/foo/bar.elc, then
     /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/foo/bar.el must refer to the
     corresponding source file.  This ensures that Emacs will be able
     to locate the source code for the add-on package when using M-x
     find-function, etc.

  F) Each emacsen main package (i.e. emacs-lucid, xemacs21, etc.) must
     depend on emacsen-common (>= 3.0.0).

  G) Each emacsen main package (i.e. emacs-lucid, emacs-nox, etc.)
     must make these calls from the given maintainer scripts:

     preinst:
       /usr/lib/emacsen-common/emacs-install --preinst <flavor>

     postinst:
       /usr/lib/emacsen-common/emacs-install --postinst <flavor>

     prerm:
       /usr/lib/emacsen-common/emacs-remove --prerm <flavor>

     The postinst call must not be made until the package is
     completely configured and ready for use, and the prerm call must
     be made before any changes that would make the package not
     completely configured and ready for use.

     These calls will ensure that all of the relevant add-on packages'
     emacsen-common install and remove scripts are called at the
     appropriate times.  In particular the postinst call may trigger
     the install scripts and the prerm script may trigger the remove
     scripts for any package that is ready.  If add-on packages are
     being installed simultaneously, the add-on install scripts may be
     delayed until their postinst scripts are run.

6) Mandatory binary path

   Each emacsen must be available as /usr/bin/<flavor> in addition to
   any normal binary path so that when add-on package install/remove
   scripts are called, they can just use /usr/bin/"$1" to get the
   right binary for byte-compilation.

7) Virtual package

   Each emacsen main package must "Provides: emacsen", and packages
   that just need to make sure some flavor of emacs is installed
   should "Depends: emacsen".  If they depend on specific flavors of
   emacs, then they should list those dependencies explicitly instead.

8) Emacs lisp load path.

   At a minimum, each emacs must have the following directories in this
   relative order in their load path:

     /usr/local/share/<flavor>/site-lisp
     /usr/share/<flavor>/site-lisp

   Emacs add-on packages may not modify load-path directly.  They must
   use (debian-pkg-add-load-path-item <path>).  This function will
   make sure that their additions end up in the right place -- before
   the emacs system directories, but after the /usr/local/
   directories.

9) Usage of autoload instead of load in the site-start.d files.

   It's been suggested, and is probably a good idea that maintainers
   switch to using autoload rather than load when possible in their
   site-start.d files.  For example, instead of (load "some-package"),
   you should use autoloads for all the top level, user visible
   functions.



That's it.  Hopefully this gives the add-on package maintainers the
flexibility they need to be able to DTRT, and the common case won't be
all that difficult.

Examples:

1) xemacs21 and the add-on packages tm and auctex are already installed,
   and now someone installs emacs23.

   In its prerm, emacs23 would make this call:

     /usr/lib/emacsen-common/emacs-install --postinst emacs23

   which would result in calls to

     /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/install/auctex emacs23
     /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/emacs/install/tm emacs23
    
2) Now, given (1), assume that someone removes xemacs21.

   In its prerm, xemacs21 would make this call:

     /usr/lib/emacsen-common/emacs-remove --prerm xemacs21

   which would result in calls to

     /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/remove/auctex xemacs21
     /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/remove/tm xemacs21

3) Now assume emacs23 and xemacs21 are installed, and that someone removes
   tm.

   The call to emacsen-package-remove in tm's prerm will result in
   the following calls:

     /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/remove/tm emacs23
     /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/remove/tm xemacs21

   In the remove/tm file, tm is responsible for cleaning up any files
   it put into its allowed locations:

     /etc/<flavor>/site-start.d/
     /usr/share/<flavor>/site-lisp/tm

4) Now assume that emacs and auctex are not installed, and that
   someone installs both at the same time.

   At some point during the installation, after emacs and auctex are
   fully configured, this command will be invoked:

     /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/remove/auctex emacs

   This call may happen from either emacs or auctex's postinst as a
   result of their respective calls to emacs-install and
   emacs-package-install.  Which package causes the invocation will
   depend on the order in which dpkg decides to invoke their postint
   scripts.  The emacsen-common infrastructure makes sure that the
   last one wins.

5) Finally, please see sample-package-install-foo and
   sample-package-remove-foo in /usr/share/doc/emacsen-common/.  These
   are sample install and remove scripts for a hypothetical package
   "foo" that only needs to byte compile a list of files for each
   flavor.