From a80477572b267d2fbf1684d2ef4b34bdb560cfc3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Craig Jennings <c@cjennings.net>
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:22:23 -0500
Subject: fix: load freshness, wttrin path, compile-time package init

Set load-prefer-newer in early-init.el. Emacs was loading the older .elc files even when the .el source was newer, warning on every load but still using the stale byte code.

Point weather-config.el's wttrin :load-path at /home/cjennings/code/emacs-wttrin. The previous value was /home/cjennings/code/wttrin, which does not exist, so use-package could not load the package.

Add (package-initialize) to the Makefile compile target. Without it, batch byte-compile cannot see ELPA packages like git-gutter, git-timemachine, forge, and difftastic, which produced "Cannot load" warnings on every run.
---
 Makefile                  | 1 +
 early-init.el             | 8 ++++++++
 modules/weather-config.el | 2 +-
 3 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index d85a290b..1ee30d4a 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -263,6 +263,7 @@ compile:
 	@echo "Byte-compiling all modules..."
 	@$(EMACS_BATCH) -L $(MODULE_DIR) \
 		--eval "(progn \
+			(package-initialize) \
 			(setq byte-compile-error-on-warn nil) \
 			(batch-byte-compile))" $(MODULE_FILES)
 	@echo "✓ Compilation complete"
diff --git a/early-init.el b/early-init.el
index c1cd54c8..9f90f292 100644
--- a/early-init.el
+++ b/early-init.el
@@ -65,6 +65,14 @@
 (setq native-comp-deferred-compilation nil)  ;; Disable async/deferred compilation
 (setq native-comp-async-report-warnings-errors nil)  ;; Silence async warnings
 
+;; ------------------------------- Load Freshness ------------------------------
+;; Prefer newer .el source over stale .elc byte-compiled files. Without this,
+;; Emacs loads the .elc even when the .el has been modified more recently and
+;; only emits a warning. Setting this in early-init.el ensures init.el itself
+;; also benefits.
+
+(setq load-prefer-newer t)
+
 ;; --------------------------- Warning Notifications ---------------------------
 
 ;; skip warnings but notify me about errors
diff --git a/modules/weather-config.el b/modules/weather-config.el
index bf71ef9c..0b15021b 100644
--- a/modules/weather-config.el
+++ b/modules/weather-config.el
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
   ;; Uncomment the next line to use vc-install instead of local directory:
   ;; :vc (:url "https://github.com/cjennings/emacs-wttrin" :rev :newest)
   :demand t  ;; REQUIRED: mode-line must start at Emacs startup
-  :load-path "/home/cjennings/code/wttrin"
+  :load-path "/home/cjennings/code/emacs-wttrin"
   :preface
   ;; Change this to t to enable debug logging
   ;; (setq wttrin-debug t)
-- 
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