Re: How do package.el handles "duplicate packages"?

[Stefan Monnier]

> Note that the current docstring doesn't mention that one of the entries
> is for nongnu and the other one is for melpa:

That's because the contents depends on the archives you have activated
and which one of those archives offers the specific package.
It could also be the case that an archive offers several versions of the
same package (tho this case hasn't been tested, AFAIK).

> Next question: is there a way to determine which of the entries -
> nongnu or melpa - corresponds to a version that is more recent?

The official way is to compare the versions with `version<=`, but since
Melpa uses an incompatible versioning scheme, this will often not give
you the answer you're looking for when comparing Melpa and (Non)GNU ELPA
versions :-(

That's a longstanding problem with Melpa versions (which does not
affect Melpa-stable), but one that's not easy to fix without introducing
regressions for existing Melpa users :-(


        Stefan