Package listed in MELPA, but not found in package install

Question

I am currently trying to install ENSIME for emacs 24.3.1 following the instructions at https://github.com/ensime/ensime-emacs under the quick start; I've added

    (require 'package)
    (add-to-list 'package-archives
             '("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/") t)
    (package-initialize)

(when (not package-archive-contents)
  (package-refresh-contents))

to my .emacs file, as instructed. However, when I restart and do M-x package install [RETURN]ensime[RETURN], it returns [No Match] and indeed, I can't find it when I list the packages. However, I can easily find it at http://melpa.milkbox.net/#; what would be causing the discrepancy between what is available through the website and when can be installed from emacs?

Any help is much appreciated; Thank you!

Labefaction

I've experienced this same problem, and looking at my Emacs config the only difference is that I have '("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/")) - note the missing t argument at the end. Can't remember if this fixed the problem for me or not, but it's easy enough to try. – Passel

Thank you for the suggestion, but I'm afraid it didn't work. – Labefaction

Did you try an explicit M-x packaged refresher contents before package-install? – Rosecan

With M-: package-archives you can see the contents of the variable package-archives. You might find that it is not what you thought you set it to. In my case as some point I had it customized in custom-set-variables (auto saved at end of .emacs) and this overrides the value I set earlier. – Alodie

the 't' at the end of the add-to-list call is just so it appends it. – Forester

@lunaryorn it was M-x package-refresher-contents - it really helped! Thanks! – Monagan

After fixing @lunaryorn's typos: M-x package-refresh-contents, this worked for me. – Hughmanick

Answer 1

In my .emacs file I have

;; packages
(when (>= emacs-major-version 24)
  (require 'package)
  (package-initialize)
  (add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/") t)
  )

Then, M-x package-list-packages

C-s ensime

and there you go:

ensime 20140718.... available ENhanced Scala Interaction Mode for Emacs

Are you sure your emacs can actually get access to internet?

Mary

it's worth pointing out that this is now outdated, please use ensime.org/editors/emacs/install – Barbate

That's great, thanks! The question is why package-install did not find it (I had the same problem with clang-format). – Evanescent

@Evanescent I found the same behavior. Turns out the package I wanted was already installed that is why package-install could not detect it. – Phospholipide

Thanks @MiniFridge that was the problem for me. :) – Shuma

Answer 2

I had to run M-x package-refresh-contents. Once I did that, the files were found.

Here's what my .emacs looks like:

(cond
 ((>= 24 emacs-major-version)
  (require 'package)
  (package-initialize)
  (add-to-list 'package-archives
           '("melpa-stable" . "http://stable.melpa.org/packages/") t)
  (package-refresh-contents)
 )
)

Incorporated

But getting started on Melpa says Enable installation of packages from MELPA by adding an entry to package-archives after (require 'package) and before the call to package-initialize in your init.el or .emacs file: – Mcspadden

That reversed order likely is what is causing the need for refreshing; ultimately they're the same thing at startup because the package-initialize has nothing to initialize until after add-to-list. I haven't tried this but I will. – Incorporated

calling package-refresh-contents fixed the issue for me. – Janeenjanek

Isn't ((>= 24 emacs-major-version) the wrong way 'round? – Coontie

Answer 3

After doing the usual editing of .emacs to make melpa avalaible and restarting Emacs, I searched the list of packages for the one I wanted.

M-x package-list-packages
C-s <package_name>

Then I clicked on the name of the package and pressed the install button. I am unsure as to why M-x package-install RET <package_name> failed, but clicking the install button worked for me.

Mete

Same issue when trying to install magit when running M-x package-install RET magit which kept indicating no matches. It showed related packages such as magit-svn, magit-p4, etc. but not simply magit. However, your suggested answer worked in installing it. – Trafficator

@RayVega I'm glad to know my answer is helping others; thanks for letting me know :) – Mete

Answer 4

Emacs v28.2

In my case it seems that a previous attempt at getting started with Emacs left me with a "stale" config file ~/.emacs which somehow clashed with ~/.emacs.d/init.el.

So I just deleted ~/.emacs and things started making sense again.

Make sure you have this in your ~/.emacs.d/init.el file:

(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/") t)
(package-initialize)

Then:

• M-x package-refresh-content ⏎
• M-x package-install ⏎
• <your-package-name> ⏎

Juncaceous

Thank you! I followed the directions in your post and I got my new package of interested installed. – Ternopol