On macOS: Wrong type argument: package-desc, nil on trying to install with quelpa

[aramirezreyes]

Hi!

I am trying to get copilot.el to work. I have added this to my init file:

(require 'use-package)
(require 'quelpa-use-package)
(use-package copilot
  :quelpa (copilot :fetcher github
                   :repo "zerolfx/copilot.el"
                   :branch "main"
                   :files ("dist" "*.el")))

But I get the following:

 Warning (initialization): An error occurred while loading (init file):

Wrong type argument: package-desc, nil

To ensure normal operation, you should investigate and remove the
cause of the error in your initialization file.  Start Emacs with
the ‘--debug-init’ option to view a complete error backtrace.

Can I get any advice?

I am on emacs 29.1 and MacOS Ventura 13.6

[aramirezreyes]

Apparently there is some sort of conflict with the tar utility shipped by macOS. Per this discussion, the fix is installing gnu tar and linking it from the init file:

In my case, I installed via homebrew and my the relevant section on my init file is like this:

;; Copilot
(require 'use-package)
(require 'quelpa-use-package)
(setq-default quelpa-build-tar-executable "/opt/homebrew/bin/gtar")
(use-package copilot
  :quelpa (copilot :fetcher github
                   :repo "zerolfx/copilot.el"
                   :branch "main"
                   :files ("dist" "*.el")))