bug#29991: Document how user can find all obsolete items he has set

bug#29991: Document how user can find all obsolete items he has set

[積丹尼 Dan Jacobson]

In the emacs manual (Info-index "obsolete command")
only finds

       When ‘M-x’ completes on commands, it ignores the commands that are
    declared “obsolete”; for these, you will have to type their full name.
    Obsolete commands are those for which newer, better alternatives exist,
    and which are slated for removal in some future Emacs release.

However one's .emacs file might be chock full of items such as

    x-select-enable-clipboard is a variable defined in ‘select.el’.
    Its value is nil

      This variable is an alias for ‘select-enable-clipboard’.
      This variable is obsolete since 25.1;
      use ‘select-enable-clipboard’ instead.

Therefore the manual should mention how to systematically weed out all
obsolete items that one has set in one's .emacs file.

Or there just answer the question 'Have I set any items that are obsolete?'.

bug#29991: Document how user can find all obsolete items he has set

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson
> 	<jidanni@jidanni.org>
> Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2018 05:14:34 +0800
> 
> However one's .emacs file might be chock full of items such as
> 
>     x-select-enable-clipboard is a variable defined in ‘select.el’.
>     Its value is nil
> 
>       This variable is an alias for ‘select-enable-clipboard’.
>       This variable is obsolete since 25.1;
>       use ‘select-enable-clipboard’ instead.
> 
> Therefore the manual should mention how to systematically weed out all
> obsolete items that one has set in one's .emacs file.
> 
> Or there just answer the question 'Have I set any items that are obsolete?'.

Compile your .emacs, and the byte-compiler will flag obsolete
variables.

bug#29991: Document how user can find all obsolete items he has set

[積丹尼 Dan Jacobson]

EZ> Compile your .emacs, and the byte-compiler will flag obsolete
EZ> variables.

Sounds good. Maybe mention it in the Emacs manual as the way to find
obsolete variables in one's emacs file.

Alas, using
B runs the command dired-do-byte-compile (found in dired-mode-map),
gives:
Byte-Compile .emacs? (y or n) y
Compiling /home/jidanni/.emacs...
Byte compile error for /home/jidanni/.emacs:
t

And no file is written. Just one big blank *compilation* buffer.
Give it a try,
http://jidanni.org/comp/configuration/.emacs

bug#29991: Document how user can find all obsolete items he has set

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org>
> Cc: 29991@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2018 22:14:28 +0800
> 
> Alas, using
> B runs the command dired-do-byte-compile (found in dired-mode-map),
> gives:
> Byte-Compile .emacs? (y or n) y
> Compiling /home/jidanni/.emacs...
> Byte compile error for /home/jidanni/.emacs:
> t

Bisect your .emacs to find where that happens, then take it from
there.

bug#29991: Document how user can find all obsolete items he has set

[Noam Postavsky]

積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org> writes:
> Alas, using
> B runs the command dired-do-byte-compile (found in dired-mode-map),
> gives:
> Byte-Compile .emacs? (y or n) y
> Compiling /home/jidanni/.emacs...
> Byte compile error for /home/jidanni/.emacs:
> t
>
> And no file is written. Just one big blank *compilation* buffer.
> Give it a try,
> http://jidanni.org/comp/configuration/.emacs

Works for me, I got this (note that I didn't load your config though):

Compiling file /home/npostavs/tmp/tmp-emacs-home/jidanni.emacs.el at Fri Jan  5 09:54:13 2018
Entering directory ‘/home/npostavs/tmp/tmp-emacs-home/’
jidanni.emacs.el:26:45:Warning: reference to free variable ‘sh-alias-alist’
jidanni.emacs.el:26:45:Warning: assignment to free variable ‘sh-alias-alist’
jidanni.emacs.el:28:15:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘browse-url-chromium-program’
jidanni.emacs.el:42:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘sendmail-query-once-function’
jidanni.emacs.el:45:2:Warning: assignment to free variable ‘ispell-dictionary’
jidanni.emacs.el:46:2:Warning: ‘Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width’ is an obsolete
    variable (as of 24.3); use ‘Buffer-menu-name-width’ and
    ‘Buffer-menu-size-width’ instead.
jidanni.emacs.el:47:2:Warning: assignment to free variable ‘vc-stay-local’
jidanni.emacs.el:54:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘perl-prettify-symbols’
jidanni.emacs.el:65:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘Man-support-local-filenames’
jidanni.emacs.el:88:6:Warning: ‘toggle-read-only’ is an obsolete function (as
    of 24.3); use ‘read-only-mode’ instead.
jidanni.emacs.el:135:7:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘news-reply-header-hook’
jidanni.emacs.el:136:7:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘sc-citation-leader’
jidanni.emacs.el:137:7:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘mm-auto-save-coding-system’
jidanni.emacs.el:138:7:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘message-draft-coding-system’
jidanni.emacs.el:139:7:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘message-forward-show-mml’
jidanni.emacs.el:146:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘dabbrev-case-replace’
jidanni.emacs.el:148:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘dabbrev-abbrev-char-regexp’
jidanni.emacs.el:172:7:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘tempo-interactive’
jidanni.emacs.el:188:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘Man-notify-method’
jidanni.emacs.el:203:7:Warning: ‘term-setup-hook’ is an obsolete variable (as
    of 24.4); use either ‘emacs-startup-hook’ or ‘tty-setup-hook’ instead.
jidanni.emacs.el:210:7:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘dired-guess-shell-alist-user’
jidanni.emacs.el:224:7:Warning: assignment to free variable ‘apropos-do-all’
jidanni.emacs.el:238:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘header-copyright-notice’
jidanni.emacs.el:239:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘make-header-hooks’
jidanni.emacs.el:264:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘browse-url-save-file’
jidanni.emacs.el:267:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘dired-clean-up-buffers-too’
jidanni.emacs.el:298:7:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘makefile-cleanup-continuations-p’
jidanni.emacs.el:299:7:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘bbdb-mail-avoid-redundancy’
jidanni.emacs.el:303:30:Warning: reference to free variable ‘bbdb-mode-map’
jidanni.emacs.el:305:19:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘bbdb-phone-style’
jidanni.emacs.el:306:19:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘bbdb-file-coding-system’
jidanni.emacs.el:307:19:Warning: assignment to free variable ‘bbdb-offer-save’
jidanni.emacs.el:312:19:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘bbdb-send-mail-style’
jidanni.emacs.el:309:19:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘bbdb-north-american-phone-numbers-p’
jidanni.emacs.el:310:19:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘bbdb-check-zip-codes-p’
jidanni.emacs.el:311:19:Warning: assignment to free variable ‘bbdb-use-pop-up’
jidanni.emacs.el:313:19:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘bbdb-dwim-net-address-allow-redundancy’
jidanni.emacs.el:314:19:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘bbdb-quiet-about-name-mismatches’
jidanni.emacs.el:321:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘ffap-dired-wildcards’
jidanni.emacs.el:322:2:Warning: assignment to free variable ‘ffap-lax-url’
jidanni.emacs.el:332:2:Warning: assignment to free variable ‘ffap-ftp-regexp’
jidanni.emacs.el:333:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘ffap-ftp-sans-slash-regexp’
jidanni.emacs.el:338:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘ffap-machine-p-known’
jidanni.emacs.el:339:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘ffap-url-unwrap-local’
jidanni.emacs.el:344:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘ange-ftp-try-passive-mode’
jidanni.emacs.el:345:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘flyspell-use-global-abbrev-table-p’
jidanni.emacs.el:347:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘sh-indent-for-then’
jidanni.emacs.el:383:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘text-scale-mode-step’
jidanni.emacs.el:384:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘tar-mode-show-date’
jidanni.emacs.el:385:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘dired-guess-shell-gnutar’
jidanni.emacs.el:391:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘diff-default-read-only’
jidanni.emacs.el:399:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘Info-hide-note-references’
jidanni.emacs.el:400:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘Info-isearch-search’
jidanni.emacs.el:405:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘ps-multibyte-buffer’
jidanni.emacs.el:406:2:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘ibuffer-movement-cycle’

In mw-mode:
jidanni.emacs.el:444:27:Warning: assignment to free variable ‘c-basic-offset’
jidanni.emacs.el:449:33:Warning: reference to free variable
    ‘browse-url-filename-alist’
jidanni.emacs.el:481:18:Warning: reference to free variable ‘image-mode-map’
jidanni.emacs.el:485:18:Warning: reference to free variable ‘archive-mode-map’
jidanni.emacs.el:514:18:Warning: reference to free variable
    ‘flyspell-mode-map’
jidanni.emacs.el:521:34:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘time-stamp-line-limit’
jidanni.emacs.el:522:34:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘time-stamp-format’
jidanni.emacs.el:524:34:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘time-stamp-start’
jidanni.emacs.el:526:34:Warning: assignment to free variable ‘time-stamp-end’
jidanni.emacs.el:527:34:Warning: assignment to free variable
    ‘time-stamp-time-zone’

In end of data:
jidanni.emacs.el:546:1:Warning: the following functions are not known to be defined: w3m-browse-url,
    bbdb-initialize

bug#29991: Document how user can find all obsolete items he has set

[積丹尼 Dan Jacobson]

>>>>> "EZ" == Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

EZ> Bisect your .emacs to find where that happens, then take it from
EZ> there.

All I know is my .emacs runs fine with no errors.

It's just when I use
dired-do-byte-compile on it do I get a weird "t" error.
So it must be dired-do-byte-compile that has the problem.

http://jidanni.org/comp/configuration/.emacs

bug#29991: Document how user can find all obsolete items he has set

[Michael Heerdegen]

積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org> writes:

> It's just when I use dired-do-byte-compile on it do I get a weird "t"
> error.  So it must be dired-do-byte-compile that has the problem.

Works here - I can compile it (but get a bunch of warnings) - tried with
master and with Emacs 24.


Michael.

bug#29991: Document how user can find all obsolete items he has set

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org>
> Cc: 29991@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2018 22:47:17 +0800
> 
> >>>>> "EZ" == Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> EZ> Bisect your .emacs to find where that happens, then take it from
> EZ> there.
> 
> All I know is my .emacs runs fine with no errors.
> 
> It's just when I use
> dired-do-byte-compile on it do I get a weird "t" error.
> So it must be dired-do-byte-compile that has the problem.

Maybe, but we will never know unless you show which part causes that.

In any case, you asked for a way to check out your .emacs, and now you
have it.  Whether that problem with 't' is part of the issue or just
something to work around to get the byte compilation run to
completion, is a separate issue.

bug#29991: Document how user can find all obsolete items he has set

[積丹尼 Dan Jacobson]

OK, dired-do-byte-compile works, it just takes a second run.
The very first run gives the "t" error, and only if you have loaded my
.emacs file. Otherwise it byte-compiles on the first run.

Anyway I hope the Emacs manual will add a section under
(info "(emacs) Init File")
mentioning how to keep your .emacs in top running shape, like changing
the oil in an automobile.

bug#29991: Document how user can find all obsolete items he has set

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org> writes:

> Anyway I hope the Emacs manual will add a section under
> (info "(emacs) Init File")
> mentioning how to keep your .emacs in top running shape, like changing
> the oil in an automobile.

I think suggesting byte-compiling the .emacs file is a bit beyond the
scope of that user manual section, so I'm closing this bug report.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no