DEV Community: gemmaro

Emacs Package Management with package-quickstart

gemmaro — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 06:41:58 +0000

(This is a manual paraphrase from my Japanese article.)

This article briefly explains how to manage (download and install) Emacs packages via the quickstart feature of package.el.
With this approach, you don't have to use package-* in your initialization file (e.g. ~/.emacs.d/init.el), let alone use-package, etc.

For detailed information, please refer to the comment of "Quickstart" in package.el or the Info node "(emacs) Package Installation".

Pros and Cons

Pros: Startup may be faster since autoloads are calculated in advance

Cons: You have to restart Emacs everytime you add packages to install

Example Setup

Disable package.el at startup in your early-init.el:

(setq package-enable-at-startup nil)

Create the installer script file (e.g. /path/to/installer.el):

;;; installer.el --- Generate package autoloads  -*- lexical-binding: t; -*-

;;; Commentary:
;; [...]

;;; Code:
;; `package-vc-install' doesn't have `DONT-SELECT' argument like in
;; `package-install'.
(setq custom-file (make-temp-file "installer"))

(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/") t)
(package-initialize)
(unless package-archive-contents
  (package-refresh-contents))

(dolist (pkg '(ddskk
               flymake-perlcritic
               auth-source-xoauth2-plugin
               ;; [...]
               ))
  (unless (package-installed-p pkg)
    (package-install pkg 'dont-update-package-selected-packages)))
(package-vc-install "https://codeberg.org/gemmaro/cwmrc-mode")

(package-quickstart-refresh)

;; This is not a package.
;;; installer.el ends here.

Then run the script:

emacs --batch --load /path/to/installer.el

Now the packages are downloaded under the ~/.emacs.d/elpa/ and the ~/.emacs.d/package-quickstart.el is generated.

Finally, load the generated file in your init file:

(load-file package-quickstart-file)

Dynamic Module Package

Some packages have dynamic modules, which require C compilation.
Here is an example to install flymake-sqlite on OpenBSD, which is a Flymake backend which utilizes the SQLite C interface.

(condition-case err
    (package-vc-install "https://codeberg.org/gemmaro/flymake-sqlite")
  ('error (message "[error:flymake-sqlite] maybe cancelled?")))
(with-environment-variables
    (("C_INCLUDE_PATH" (concat "/usr/local/include:" (getenv "C_INCLUDE_PATH")))
     ("LIBRARY_PATH" (concat "/usr/local/lib:" (getenv "LIBRARY_PATH"))))
  (let* ((dir (concat user-emacs-directory "elpa/flymake-sqlite"))
         (ls (process-lines "gmake"
                            "--directory" dir)))
    (message "[info:out] %S" ls)))

License

Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
notice and this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is,
without any warranty.

Bundler Quiz!

gemmaro — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 21:19:10 +0000

(Translated from the Japanese article.)

This is a quiz about Ruby's Bundler!

Add 8 characters to the following Gemfile so that bundle install fails (with non-zero exit code) for the second time or later.
source "https://rubygems.org"
gemspec

Notes:

Bundler is a fairly recent version (approximately version 3 or later).
The first invocation succeeds.

If you find the answer (on your own), please send me a direct message on ruby.social or email, etc.!

Wrong Answers

An invalid URL like https://rubygems.org12345678: It doesn't fail since Bundler doesn't refer to the URL.
An invalid URL and gems: It fails on the first run. It must fail only on the second or later runs.
Something like this: It exeeds 8 characters.

  source "https://rubygems.org"
  gemspec
  File.file?("Gemfile.lock") and raise

License

Easy Gmail setup with Gnus and smtpmail via OAuth2

gemmaro — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 19:28:05 +0000

(This is a manual paraphrase of the Japanese article. It might not be fluent English; sorry in advance.)

This article explains how to send and receive email on Emacs. Particularly, we will use Gnus for receiving, smtpmail for sending, Gmail for an email service, and OAuth2 for authentication.

Outline

Files: Emacs initialization file (e.g. ~/.emacs.d/init.el) and auth-source file (e.g. ~/.authinfo)

Steps:

Emacs: Install auth-source-xoauth2-plugin.
Emacs: Set Customize variables and edit authinfo.
Emacs: Restart Emacs and launch Gnus. A prompt appears in the minibuffer. It also opens a confirmation page in your browser.
Browser: Press Continue. It looks like an error page, but this is expected.
Browser: Copy code=<CODE> query parameter from the address bar.
Emacs: Paste the code in the Emacs minibuffer.

Customize variables to set. Please replace <NAME>:

(auth-source-xoauth2-plugin-mode t)
(gnus-secondary-select-methods
 '((nnimap "imap.gmail.com" (nnimap-user "<NAME>@gmail.com")
           (nnimap-server-port "imaps") (nnimap-stream tls)
           (nnir-search-engine imap) (nnimap-authenticator xoauth2))))
(message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)
(smtpmail-smtp-server "smtp.gmail.com")
(smtpmail-smtp-service "587")
(smtpmail-stream-type 'starttls)
;; I recommend not to set browse-url-browser-function to eww,
;; and to keep smtpmail-smtp-user as default.

Example ~/.authinfo. Please replace <NAME>:

machine imap.gmail.com login <NAME>@gmail.com port imaps auth xoauth2 auth-source-xoauth2-predefined-service google
machine smtp.gmail.com login <NAME>@gmail.com port 587 auth xoauth2 auth-source-xoauth2-predefined-service google

That's all!

Notes

OAuth2
Gmail still support username/password authentication. So you can also configure authinfo as follows, though it is not OAuth2. Please replace <NAME> and [...].

machine smtp.gmail.com login <NAME>@gmail.com password [...] port 587
machine imap.gmail.com login <NAME>@gmail.com password [...] port 993

auth-source file
If you set up PGP, you can also use an encrypted ~/.authinfo.gpg file. See also auth-sources Customize variable.

browse-url-browser-function
EWW is a great web browser, but here we don't use EWW because otherwise it won't automatically open a web browser (like Firefox) which supports JavaScript, so you have to copy the URL manually from the minibuffer. It can be also problematic since EWW buffer might collide with Gnus buffers.

smtpmail-smtp-user
auth-source-xoauth2-plugin package internally handles this variable, so leaving this variable unset should cause fewer problems.

How to send email?
C-x m (M-x compose-mail) to open a buffer with message major mode. Fill in the message and C-c C-c (M-x message-send-and-exit) to send the email.

References

auth-source: Info "(auth) Top"
smtpmail: Info "(smtpmail) Top" and "(smtpmail) Authentication"
Gnus: Info "(gnus) Top" and "(gnus) Customizing the IMAP Connection" (nnimap-authenticator)
Initial set up using OAuth2 and auth-source-xoauth2-plugin