This overhaul introduces four key changes to the elisp ports framework:
1. Remove support for packaged byte-compiled elisp.
The primary motivation is to remove a large number of flavor-specific
packages and to simplify the ports tree. As an example, supporting
byte-compiled elisp for devel/tablist required six packages, one for
each flavor of editors/emacs and editors/emacs-devel. With over 100
elisp ports and requests for new Emacs flavors, this was
unmanageable.
2. Install configuration to integrate with Emacs's native compilation
machinery, allowing elisp from ports to be compiled into the standard
cache under the user's home directory.
This matches the behavior of GNU ELPA packages and generally results
in a faster experience. Speedups vary depending on the
characteristics of the elisp code, but are often reported to be 2.5
to 5 times faster than byte-compiled code.
3. Perform byte compilation on the target host, but only when native
compilation is unavailable. Compilation is initiated when Emacs
starts, and the resulting .elc files are cached under the user's
home directory.
4. Load all autoload files installed by FreeBSD elisp ports. This
mirrors what package.el does for ELPA packages, ensuring that
autoloaded functions are available without requiring users to
explicitly load each package.
Users with elisp packages (*-emacs_*) installed should consult the
2026-04-11 UPDATING entry for instructions on handling the transition.
Reviewed by: ashish, Benjamin Jacobs <freebsd@dev.thsi.be>, dinoex,
mandree, mce, nobutaka, Pat Maddox <pat@patmaddox.com>,
rhurlin
Sponsored by: The FreeBSD Foundation
Differential Revision: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D56001