Is it possible to downgrade packages installed with ELPA?

Question

I updated today my packages in emacs with ELPA and after the update I'm stuck with the

Variable binding depth exceeds max-specpdl-size

error. Since it is not easy to debug, is it possible to downgrade the packages that were updated? Where can I find an ELPA log where I can get the previous version of these packages?

Bandsman

Try adding (setq debug-on-error t) to your .emacs file and then restarting Emacs to see if you get a better error report. One option would be to rename your elpa directory -- e.g., elpa-original, and then download the latest version of each package one at a time and try each one out before downloading the next package. You may find that you are able to install them all and with no errors, or you may find the package that has the problem since you are doing it one at a time and restarting Emacs after each install. And, in hindsight, start backing up your Emacs installation more often. – Career

This is (one of the reasons) why I keep my entire Emacs configuration under version control. If I upgrade a library and it breaks things, I simply revert it. I recommend doing likewise. – Magnetic

could you modify the title? the answer you chose actually doesn't answer your question. – Pitta

Answer 1

I second @lawlist's recommendation to (setq debug-on-error t) early in your ~/.emacs file. You can also use emacs --debug-init to get a similar result. This said, sometimes the kind of error you get here can also prevent the debugger from showing up. I recommend you M-x report-emacs-bug and describe the problem, along with any additional info you find, including the solution you found, if any.

As for downgrading a package, it's technically possible, but there is no UI support for it. And there's no log of package installs either. Please do mention this in the bug-report as well, since it's indeed a good idea to try and keep track of those things.

Sorry.

Lilliamlillian

This does not answer the question "where I can get the previous version of these packages" – Forelli

For GNU ELPA packages, if you visit elpa.gnu.org/packages, each package there comes with a list of past versions. You can download and install them manually, but as mentioned, there is no UI support to do that. – Lilliamlillian

Thx @stefan. And, if you use the package manage to update packages it might serve to NOT take the option to delete the outdated packages, at least at first.... thus allowing easy restoration to old version. – Forelli

Well, named column on org-table does not work for a week now, with error "Invalid table range specifier". I realized it's very important to know how to downgrading packages. – Artair

I suggest you M-x report-emacs-bug and request the feature. I think that if you enable url-handlers-mode you can then do M-x package-install-file RET http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/org/org-<vers>.tar in order to downgrade to a particular version. – Lilliamlillian