---
title: Emacs Package manager
url: https://www.grahambrooks.com/post/2010-12-24-emacs-package-manager/
date: 2010-12-24T00:00:00+00:00
author: Graham Brooks
tags:
- developer-tools
---

# Emacs Package manager

I have a long history with text editors and I have always been
facinated with the different flavours of interfaces and
capabilities. After working my way through ED and then VI
[Emacs](http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/) was a bit of a
revalation. I found myself idle for a few minutes this morning and
thought I would do some editor maintenance and install haml-mode into
my copy of Emacs. While surfing around I came across the
[Emacs Lisp Package Archive](http://tromey.com/elpa/install.html)
which made the installation a breeze and I then found myself
installing all sorts of other additions that might be useful in the
future.

## ELPA installation instructions (copied from the ELPA site)

```lisp
(let ((buffer (url-retrieve-synchronously
	       "http://tromey.com/elpa/package-install.el")))
  (save-excursion
    (set-buffer buffer)
    (goto-char (point-min))
    (re-search-forward "^$" nil 'move)
    (eval-region (point) (point-max))
    (kill-buffer (current-buffer))))
```


Paste the code into a scratch buffer, and then execute the code in the
buffer. Once complete run the *package-list-packages* command. In the
packages buffer 'i' marks an entry for installation and 'x' installs
the marked packages.