suggestion for FAQ: clarifying how to upgrade org

suggestion for FAQ: clarifying how to upgrade org

[Robert P. J. Day]

  i'm reading the FAQ, section about upgrading org, and it's not clear
what one would do in the following situation.

  i'm running ubuntu 12.04 and in emacs running "M-x org-version" i
get, "version 6.33x".  however, ubuntu has a separate org-mode package
and, after installing that package via "apt-get install" and
restarting emacs, i get "version 7.8.02".

  that seems to work fine.  if that's an acceptable way to upgrade
org, that should probably be mentioned in the FAQ -- that you might
just be able to do a standard, distro-specific install of whatever
represents the org-mode package and emacs will pick it up
automatically.

  just an observation.

rday

p.s.  also curious about the advice here:

http://orgmode.org/worg/org-faq.html#mixed-install

in both cases above, when i asked for "org-version", i didn't get any
"release" info in parentheses.  all i saw was:

  "Org-mode version x.y.z"

which might confuse a reader expecting to see release information.
again, just another observation.

Re: suggestion for FAQ: clarifying how to upgrade org

[Memnon Anon]

Hi rpjd,

"Robert P. J. Day" <rpjday@crashcourse.ca> writes:

>   that seems to work fine.  if that's an acceptable way to upgrade
> org, that should probably be mentioned in the FAQ -- that you might
> just be able to do a standard, distro-specific install of whatever
> represents the org-mode package and emacs will pick it up
> automatically.
>
>   just an observation.

That faq is exported from an org file on worg.
Sure, distro specific packages are a viable way to upgrade your org:

Would you like to add it?

If you don't know git, this is the relevant section:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
** My Emacs ships with an older version Org-mode! How do I upgrade?
   :PROPERTIES:
   :CUSTOM_ID: updating-org
   :END:

#+index: Upgrade

Org-mode develops quickly, which means that versions of Org-mode
shipped with Emacs are more or less out-of-date. If you'd like to
upgrade to the most recent version of org-mode, you have a number of
options.

 1. Download the [[http://orgmode.org/index.html#sec-3][most recent release]] of org-mode as zip or tarball and
    follow the [[http://orgmode.org/manual/Installation.html#Installation][installation instructions]] in the manual.
 2. Clone and install the development git repository as [[#keeping-current-with-Org-mode-development][explained
    here]]. If you don't want to run the bleeding edge, you can still
    use git [[#using-stable-releases-only][to track the most recent stable releases]].
 3. Install and updated org-mode automatically through the Emacs
    Package Manager as [[#installing-via-elpa][explained in this FAQ]].

/Note/: Please also see [[#mixed-install][Is my Orgmode installation mixed?]] for a common
issue with mixed installations.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Just insert your words and certainly someone will push it :).

otoh, http://orgmode.org/org-mode-download.html (where you are sent to
to to download org) already mentions "Alternate distributions".

> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-faq.html#mixed-install
>
> in both cases above, when i asked for "org-version", i didn't get any
> "release" info in parentheses.  all i saw was:
>
>   "Org-mode version x.y.z"
>
> which might confuse a reader expecting to see release information.
> again, just another observation.

,----[ org-faq.org - Is my Orgmode installation mixed? ]
|                                            An easy first step to
|   investigate this is to look at the output of =M-x org-version=.
|   - Good :: ~Org-mode version 7.8.11 (release_7.8.11-448-g1737d3 @
|             /path/to/org-mode/lisp/)~
|   - Bad :: ~Org-mode version 6.33x (release_7.8.11.409.ga3778)~
`----

org-version got improved to show the release bit in several steps,
starting with

| commit e7d2e4e18694cb8c4bec5a81815bf7ef9c8078a6
| Author: Achim Gratz <Stromeko@Stromeko.DE>
| Date:   Mon May 7 21:21:28 2012 +0200

So, the suggestion in org-faq will only work with org versions later
than May 19.

org-7.8.11, which ships with emacs24, was released ... a couple of days
later. But these changes obviously didn't make it into the bundled
version. Lets be vague then :), what about:

"An easy first step to investigate this /with a recent version/ is to look
 at the output of =M-x org-version=."

Re: suggestion for FAQ: clarifying how to upgrade org

[Suvayu Ali]

On Sat, Sep 08, 2012 at 07:29:21AM -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> 
> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-faq.html#mixed-install
> 
> in both cases above, when i asked for "org-version", i didn't get any
> "release" info in parentheses.  all i saw was:
> 
>   "Org-mode version x.y.z"
> 
> which might confuse a reader expecting to see release information.
> again, just another observation.
> 

I updated the FAQ as per your suggestion.  Hope it is clearer now.

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.