bug#81627: 30.2; [ELPA] Suggestions from my first ELPA package submission

Stefan Monnier <[email protected]> writes:

>> 1. Support comments in .elpaignore.
>
> Currently, `.elpaignore` is passed straight to `tar` via its `-X`
> option, so the best place to add support for comments would be in `tar`
> (tho it would take years before we can start using that feature).  🙁

I am thinking about a more practical way: prescribe a comment prefix,
such as ";" or "#" and filter out lines starting with that before
passing them to tar.

>> 2. Document what should and should not be added to .elpaignore, maybe
>>    with reasoning.
>
> What *should* be there are files that would be actively harmful.
> These fall typically into two categories:
> - Files which aren't needed but would, say, double the size of the
>   tarball (typical example: snapshots or the copy of the GPL for <20kB
>   packages).  20% size increase is negligible, OTOH, so that doesn't
>   count as "should".
> - Files which would cause technical problems once installed, e.g. test
>   or maintenance files that may fail to compile on the end-user machine
>   because they require packages that aren't in the `Package-Requires:`.
>
> Beyond that, it's up to the package maintainer (I recommend not adding
> anything beyond that, simply to minimize the maintenance burden of
> that `.elpaignore` file).

I think documenting these should be useful.

>>   Also document relevant export
>>   options. Give guidance for how to organize the content of README.org.
>
> I have very little knowledge about that, so wouldn't know what to say,

To be clear, what I have in mind when writing that is to document what
export options are used by elpa-admin.el, such as the value of
`elpaa--org-export-options'.

> but feel free to suggest things.

I did suggestion a few things in the bug report.  I am also not an
expert on that.