Can't use Spacemacs when downloading packages

[khalidrafi6]

Spacemacs doesn't accept any input when downloading packages. I want to use my editor while it's downloading in the background. This causes issues for me when I reload configuration or launch Emacs. Is there any way to use Spacemacs and keep the download going in background?

[bcc32]

No, unfortunately this is a limitation of the built-in package manager in Emacs. See for example:

(defcustom package-menu-async t
  "If non-nil, package-menu will use async operations when possible.
Currently, only the refreshing of archive contents supports
asynchronous operations.  Package transactions are still done
synchronously."
  :type 'boolean
  :version "25.1")

Usually this only affects new installations of Spacemacs. Do you frequently find yourself installing many new packages on startup?

[khalidrafi6]

Whenever I refresh the config or sometimes at startup, there is a delay for downloading packages.

[bcc32]

Are you downloading actual packages that are then getting installed, or are you actually only downloading the list of packages/versions? (which Emacs calls "archive contents", see the snippet above)?

[khalidrafi6]

Actual packages or keyring. Btw, can I configure Spacemacs to use Guix packages? Will that solve this problem?

[bcc32]

If you install packages via site-lisp (I'm not sure what Guix does exactly, but I use Emacs installed with some additional site-lisp packages via Nix), Spacemacs will use them. Of course, there is no mechanism for Spacemacs to automatically tell Guix which packages to install, but you could close the gap significantly.

[khalidrafi6]

Can't we add some way to tell Emacs to prefer Guix? That sounds easy to do. Also, I wonder why that feature isn't yet available in Emacs given that both Guix and Emacs are made by GNU. But, for the moment being, how can I disable all kinds of auto downloads in spacemacs?

[bcc32]

Can't we add some way to tell Emacs to prefer Guix? That sounds easy to do.

My claim is that this already happens, if the Emacs packages you installed via Guix are correctly configured (e.g., they show up in $EMACSLOADPATH or are otherwise available at startup).

But, for the moment being, how can I disable all kinds of auto downloads in spacemacs?

You can't, for packages that Spacemacs actually needs. Your .spacemacs file controls which packages will be required on startup, and Spacemacs must install them if they are not installed already, to start up correctly.

Again, though, I am puzzled why you report encountering this so often. I have a fairly substantial number of packages configured by my ~/.spacemacs, but I never see Spacemacs install packages on startup unless:

1. I had to reinstall Spacemacs for some reason
2. I specifically upgraded packages using SPC f e U
3. I changed ~/.spacemacs to require new packages, such as by enabling a new layer.

Please provide a specific example of when Spacemacs installs packages that it doesn't need. Otherwise, I don't think this is really a bug that can be fixed.

[khalidrafi6]

Can't we add some way to tell Emacs to prefer Guix? That sounds easy to do.

My claim is that this already happens, if the Emacs packages you installed via Guix are correctly configured (e.g., they show up in $EMACSLOADPATH or are otherwise available at startup.

Basically, I want Emacs package manager to download them from Guix. Else, I would have to install 300+ packages by hand!

And, I am blocked by the package manager to download keyring and tern each time I reload configuration. I don't know how many times it has to install them.

[bcc32]

Basically, I want Emacs package manager to download them from Guix. Else, I would have to install 300+ packages by hand!

There is no built-in way to do this with package.el, AFAIK. Feel free to suggest it upstream to Emacs devs.

And, I am blocked by the package manager to download keyring and tern each time I reload configuration. I don't know how many times it has to install them.

What specifically do you mean by "reload configuration"? Can you paste the output (e.g., *Messages* buffer) here, I am curious what exactly Spacemacs is trying to install.

[khalidrafi6]

What specifically do you mean by "reload configuration"?

SPC f e R

Can you paste the output (e.g., Messages buffer) here, I am curious what exactly Spacemacs is trying to install.

(Spacemacs) --> refreshing package archive: melpa... [1/3]
Contacting host: melpa.org:443
Importing package-keyring.gpg...done
Contacting host: melpa.org:443 [2 times]
Package refresh done
(Spacemacs) --> refreshing package archive: gnu... [2/3]
Contacting host: elpa.gnu.org:443
Importing package-keyring.gpg...done
Contacting host: elpa.gnu.org:443
Package refresh done
(Spacemacs) --> refreshing package archive: nongnu... [3/3]
Contacting host: elpa.nongnu.org:443
Importing package-keyring.gpg...done
Contacting host: elpa.nongnu.org:443 [2 times]
Package refresh done
(Spacemacs) --> installing package: tern@tern... [1/1]
Contacting host: melpa.org:443
Parsing tar file...done
Extracting...done
  INFO     Scraping 3 files for loaddefs... 
tern: Warning: Use keywords rather than deprecated positional arguments to ‘define-minor-mode’
  INFO     Scraping 3 files for loaddefs...done
Checking /home/rafi/.emacs.d/elpa/30.1/develop/tern-20191227.950... [3 times]
Wrote /home/rafi/.emacs.d/elpa/30.1/develop/tern-20191227.950/tern.elc
Checking /home/rafi/.emacs.d/elpa/30.1/develop/tern-20191227.950...
Done (Total of 1 file compiled, 2 skipped)
Package ‘tern’ installed.

With this in ~/.spacemacs:

dotspacemacs-install-packages 'used-but-keep-unused

[bcc32]

So, is something causing tern to somehow get uninstalled before the next time you use Spacemacs? There should be no reason for it to be installed over and over, if your list of enabled layers is consistent over time.

If you'd like to just paste your config here, too, that would likely help.