I get Symbol's value as variable is void: github when I have the following in my .emacs file (the error comes from the last expression):
(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
'("MELPA Stable" . "http://stable.melpa.org/packages/") t)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
'("gnu" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/") t )
(package-initialize)
(package-refresh-contents)
(package-install 'flycheck)
(global-flycheck-mode)
(custom-set-variables
;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
'(package-selected-packages (quote (haskell-mode idris-mode flycheck))))
(custom-set-faces
;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom.
;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
)
(add-hook 'after-init-hook #'global-flycheck-mode)
(idris-mode
:repo "idris-hackers/idris-mode"
:fetcher github
:files (:defaults "logo-small.png"))
It looks like the last expression in your .emacs file comes from the MELPA recipe for idris-mode. You don't need that in your init file - just type M-x list-packages, find idris-mode in the list, and install it by typing i x. After that, idris-mode will be available every time you start Emacs.