emacs: Why can't I install auto-complete via package-install?

Question

I am new to emacs and have never used package-install before. I am using emacs 24.4 on Windows, but I would like to do the same thing on my emacs installed ona unix server that I ssh into.

These instructions say that I can install auto-complete with Mx package-install [RET] auto-complete [RET] , but when I do this I get [No match] . Why is this? How can I install it?

Answer 1

Have a look at what the instructions say with a little more context:

Install

auto-complete is available on MELPA and MELPA-STABLE

You can install auto-complete with the following command.

 Mx package-install [RET] auto-complete [RET] 

Before running the package-install you need to enable MELPA or MELPA stable:

Enable installation of packages from MELPA by adding an entry to package-archives after (require 'package) and before the call to package-initialize in your init.el or .emacs file:

 (require 'package) ;; You might already have this line (add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/")) (when (< emacs-major-version 24) ;; For important compatibility libraries like cl-lib (add-to-list 'package-archives '("gnu" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/"))) (package-initialize) ;; You might already have this line 

or to add the stable package repository, use this instead of "melpa":

 (add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa-stable" . "https://stable.melpa.org/packages/") t) 

You might also need to run Mx package-refresh-contents before Mx package-install will work. Alternatively, run Mx package-list-packages and use the UI provided there, which refreshes contents automatically.