In Emacs, the M-x
keybinding lets you search and execute available commands. I'm looking for a similar function/functionality that lets you search and install available packages from the Emacs repositories.
The best I can do at present is M-x package-list-packages
followed by C-s
, but this has a few shortcomings:
Does the functionality I'm looking for exist? Or is there a package that provides this functionality for Emacs? And if so, where can I find it?
It sounds like M-x package-install
should do what you want. If you have helm
installed, you will have a helm-like interface to search and install packages. Even without helm
, it can be invoked from any buffer, it supports narrowing, and if you do have helm installed, it supports fuzzy matching.
I still tend to use M-x package-list-packages
unless I know exactly what I am looking for, because unlike package-install
it allows you to see details and descriptions of the packages. I have C-s
bound to helm-occur
, so I can search through this buffer with a helm-like interface as well. Also, in the *Packages*
buffer, you can use f
(package-menu-filter
) which allows you to narrow down the package list based on a list of comma-separated keywords. However, I can understanding you wanting to avoid the aspects of package-list-packages
outlined in your post.