bug#38843: define-globalized-minor-mode enable boolean will prevent loading with :require

["Paul W. Rankin" via "Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors" <bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>]

> On 31 Oct 2020, at 12:49 am, Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> wrote:
> 
> So the problem is basically that you've switched a minor mode on via
> Customize, but then deleted the minor mode.  I'm actually not sure
> whether it makes sense for Emacs to signal an error or not here: You've
> asked to have a mode switched on, but then Emacs can't do that because
> it can't find the file it's defined in.

The customize system is designed not to prevent loading even when libraries aren't found, e.g. settings persist after uninstalling their library, because it makes sense that if the user then chooses to reinstall they get to keep their settings. The counter option is that uninstalling a package removes that packages settings, forcing the user to go through and set them all again.

The separation of settings and source is a good thing, and ought not to trip Emacs over. The absence of the source should not matter a wink to the settings.