The failure to build elpa-cider is caused by: > In toplevel form: > cider.el:218:1: Error: Wrong number of arguments: (3 . 4), 2
In the source, this corresponds to: > (define-obsolete-variable-alias 'cider-default-repl-command > 'cider-jack-in-default) In recent versions of emacs, the definition of this (macro) is: > (define-obsolete-variable-alias OBSOLETE-NAME CURRENT-NAME WHEN &optional > DOCSTRING) So the call from cider.el is missing the third argument, leading to the error. Examining emacs' history, we can find in NEWS.28: > ** The WHEN argument of 'make-obsolete' and related functions is mandatory. > The use of those functions without a WHEN argument was marked obsolete > back in Emacs 23.1. The affected functions are: 'make-obsolete', > 'define-obsolete-function-alias', 'make-obsolete-variable', > 'define-obsolete-variable-alias'. So this is indeed caused by a change in emacs 28, where the third argument to define-obsolete-variable-alias is now mandatory. Upstream cider removed this call to define-obsolete-variable-alias in version 1.1, changeset 4b6c0e9936d125102c2dd0bb1dedbd80fb4907a6, in December 2020. What to do? Debian could carry a patch to fix version 0.19 of cider to address this failure. This would be straightforward, but given how old the packaged version of cider is, it's not clear that it would really be a useful way forward. It seems like either: - the Debian packaged version of cider should be updated to something more current, and kept updated, - the package should be removed, leaving Debian without a packaged version of cider. New versions of cider appear quite frequently - sometimes weekly. Keeping them up to date in Debian would be an ongoing commitment. Given how old the packaged version of cider is and how apparently little used (it has been broken for a couple of years, and popcon lists 7 installs), removing it seems the more sensible approach. -- I've been waiting for so long, to come here now and sing this song.
