The :depends keyword does not take package ownership into account

[Stebalien]

Description

The layer packages :depends keyword does not take package ownership into
account. That is, if a layer declares a package in <layer>-packages but
doesn't initialize it (doesn't own it), the :depends keyword will still treat
the package as if it were available.

For example, given:

layers/foo/packages.el:

(setq foo-packages '(foo))

(defun foo/pre-init-foo ())

layers/bar/packages.el:

(setq bar-packages '(bar :depends foo))

(defun bar/init-bar ())

bar will be installed (and foo along with it if the bar package actually
depends on foo).

System Info 💻

• OS: gnu/linux
• Emacs: 26.0.50
• Spacemacs: 0.200.9
• Spacemacs branch: local (rev. c5ef8edd)
• Graphic display: t
• Distribution: spacemacs-base
• Editing style: vim
• Completion: ivy

[TheBB]

But in this case the bar layer owns the bar package. The :depends property is checked for packages which a layer doesn't own.

[TheBB]

Just realized that it needs to do that, too.

[TheBB]

@Stebalien @skebanga Can you try #9136

[steve-lorimer]

First time I've done this, so not sure if it's correct, although I believe it is (followed instructions here)

$ git fetch origin pull/9136/head:fix-9134
$ git checkout fix-9134

Restarted spacemacs and the warnings went away

Reverted to develop

$ git checkout develop

Restarted spacemacs and the warnings were back.

So for me, looks like it's workin! Thanks @TheBB

[Stebalien]

Hm. Maybe I'm experiencing a different issue? My problem is that helm is getting installed because:

1. The shell layer declares it but doesn't own it.
2. Several other layers pull packages that depend on helm with (helm-something :depends helm).

[TheBB]

I'll solve this but it may be a few days.

[TheBB]

I have updated the PR. @Stebalien I think it should fix your problem. Please let me know.

[choppsv1]

With the latest changes I am able to re-enable ivy (disabling helm) and cleanly launch rather than failing in eieio...

[jsoo1]

I also tested on fix-9134. Looks pretty good! 👍 Thanks!

[Stebalien]

Still broken for me. Describe package gives:

helm is an installed package.

     Status: Installed in ‘helm-20170628.2213/’ (unsigned).
    Version: 20170628.2213
    Summary: Helm is an Emacs incremental and narrowing framework
   Requires: emacs-24.4, async-1.9.2, popup-0.5.3, helm-core-2.8.0
Required by: restclient-helm-20170314.854, helm-hoogle-20161026.2234, helm-gitignore-20170210.1608, helm-css-scss-20140626.1725, helm-company-20170608.1029,
               helm-c-yasnippet-20170128.742
   Homepage: https://emacs-helm.github.io/helm/
Other versions: 20170628.2213 (melpa).

1. All of the "Required by" packages have :depends helm specified and aren't dependencies of any other package.
2. I don't have the helm layer enabled so nothing else should be pulling in helm. The only layer I have that mentions helm directly is the shell layer but that layer doesn't "own" the helm package.

[Stebalien]

I've tried removing the helm package configuration from the shell layer and uninstalling all helm related packages but they just get re-installed when I restart.

So, maybe this doesn't have anything to do with "unowned" packages? The one thing that fixes this for me to change the shell layer's helm dependency to:

        (helm :toggle (configuration-layer/layer-usedp 'helm))

That results in a warning about the shell layer not owning the helm package but also prevents the helm package from getting installed.

However, it appears that simply removing the helm dependency from that package doesn't prevent it from being installed.

[TheBB]

Is the problem that the helm package is being downloaded or that it's being configured and enabled?

[Stebalien]

Helm is only being downloaded, not configured (although it still shouldn't be downloaded in this case). However, the other packages (the ones that declare :depends helm) are being configured (e.g., helm-gitignore).

[TheBB]

With the latest version of my PR I can't verify the latter problem you have. I get

(Spacemacs) helm-gitignore is ignored since it has dependencies that are not used.

[TheBB]

Sorry, I accidentally posted too soon. Here's the real comment.

@Stebalien I have updated the PR again. Please have a look.

Depending on your exact config, you will probably find that the helm package is still being installed, because the following packages (at least, there may be more) depend on it (not in the Spacemacs :depends sense of "don't install this package if its dependencies are not present" but in the package.el sense of "to install this package, install these other ones too"):

• counsel-dash in the dash layer depends on helm-dash which depends on helm
• emoji-cheat-sheet-plus in the emoji layer depends on helm directly
• helm-make in the ivy layer (!) depends on helm directly
• org-ref in the bibtex layer depends on helm-bibtex which depends on helm

If you found that the helm package was not installed previously and that any of these four packages (or some I have not discovered) were used in your config, I can only assume that was a bug that has been fixed, because we cannot in good conscience override the dependencies that package authors have decided to use.

Now, whether any of these packages need to be declared with :depends helm or not is an open question. They were not declared with :toggle (configuration-layer/package-usedp 'helm) before.

[TheBB]

I'll rename :depends to :requires to avoid confusion between the two notions. :-)

[syl20bnr]

Should be fixed in develop.
@TheBB +1 for the renaming.

[Stebalien]

@TheBB The latest version (the one merged into develop) works. Thanks!

(FYI, I had already already excluded those packages for precisely this reason.)

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