There are also some other alternatives on the emacs-devel list from when I asked as a general question regarding package.el and dependencies.
Should be noted that this issue is primarily caused because, fro the package.el perspective, org-plus-contrib is different to the org package. Other ELPA/MELPA/etc packages have org as a dependency and not org-plus-contrib. There is no support in package.el for alternative dependencies. I would be interested in understanding the rationale for having org-plus-contrib rather than just an org package and an org-contrib package? It should be possible to just have an org-contrib package which depends on an org package (of same version). This would then avoid this issue. As this is an obvious solution, I suspect there is something subtle which unpins the rationale to have an org and org-plus-contrib package approach, but don't know what that is. Tim Thomas S. Dye writes: > In case it is useful, here is Achim's post: > > From: Achim Gratz > To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org > Subject: Re: [O] Stable releases > Flags: replied, seen, list > Date: Sat Aug 22 07:44:14 2015 > Maildir: /TSDYE/INBOX > List: emacs-orgmode.gnu.org > > Thomas S. Dye writes: >> I do have a technical question that you or someone else on the list >> might be able to answer for me. When I downloaded the Babel languages >> from melpa just now, the elpa version of Org mode was also downloaded >> and installed, even though I didn't ask for it. Why is this? > > Although you don't say which package you tried, I would guess that the > "org" package is specified as a dependency, likely with some minimum > version. > >> Can it be disabled? Must the elpa Org mode be installed and activated >> in order for the Org mode packages to work? > > From the point of package manager anything installed from the outside > doesn't exist. You can fake that in various way, for instance by > creating a package directory "org-21991231" and putting an org-pkg.el > with > > (define-package "org" "21991231" "Fake Org package for dependency resolution" > 'nil) > > in it. > > > Regards, > Achim. > -- > +<[Q+ Matrix-12 WAVE#46+305 Neuron microQkb Andromeda XTk Blofeld]>+ > > Waldorf MIDI Implementation & additional documentation: > http://Synth.Stromeko.net/Downloads.html#WaldorfDocs > > > Achim Gratz writes: > >> Adam Porter writes: >>> I've had the same problem, I have to manually delete the extra org >>> package now and then. I wonder if a dummy package would prevent >>> package.el from reinstalling it... >> >> Yes it does and I've provided instructions on how to do that quite some >> time ago on this list. >> >> >> Regards, >> Achim. -- Tim Cross