bug#81105: 32.0.50; installed ELPA package info missing on some distros after commit 7c22a7d

Eli Zaretskii <[email protected]> writes:

>> From: Philip Kaludercic <[email protected]>
>> Cc: [email protected], Vonfry <[email protected]>, "'Eli Zaretskii'"
>>  <[email protected]>
>> Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2026 19:18:19 +0000
>> 
>> In `package--add-info-node' we want to avoid loading info just to add a
>> directory to `Info-directory-list', so we use
>> `Info-default-directory-list' instead.  The issue here is that the
>> INFOPATH environmental variable is set _without_ a trailing ":", then
>> `Info-default-directory-list' is ignored and we don't get any manuals
>> for packages in the Info listing.  The main question is if this is
>> something that we should fix by just adjusting something in package.el
>> (in the worse case we can revert our change on emacs-31 and go on
>> loading info) or is there a proper way to use info.el here?
>
> I don't see how we could fix this at all, let alone in Emacs 31, to
> support the case of INFOPATH not ending in a colon.  If any solution
> is possible, it would mean completely rewriting the code which sets up
> Info-directory-list from the known sources, and I currently don't even
> have an idea how to do that without breaking all the use cases we
> already support.
>
> So at this point, I prefer to take position that we expect INFOPATH,
> if set, to always end in a colon, in order to support installation of
> packages with Info manual.  Since INFOPATH overrides any other builtin
> settings, not ending it in a colon is dangerous (not to say
> nonsensical), and distros should not do it.

So you would say that this is not a bug, and that the user is expected
to adjust INFOPATH on their own?  Should we document this fact
somewhere, as otherwise I wouldn't be surprised that many people will
not realize that they cannot find ELPA manuals due to some global
configuration.  To make things worse, they will be able to see the
manual right after installing the package in the same session, as we
modify `Info-directory-list' if they have already used Info, but it
would disappear when they restart Emacs.