From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Drew Adams" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: RE: `custom-file' and init-file [was: user-controlled load-pathextension: load-dir] Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 13:39:39 -0800 Message-ID: <528C9E1D4F4E4D92BC5532D3BECF42AD@us.oracle.com> References: <87ei6mz24h.fsf@lifelogs.com><20110306072147.GA11067@event-horizon.homenet><871v2i525h.fsf@lifelogs.com> <87oc5lx607.fsf@lifelogs.com> <874o7ds37p.fsf@lifelogs.com><4D7726E8.5090206@swipnet.se> <4D772988.4070209@gmail.com><4D775002.8050100@swipnet.se> <87y64oouuf.fsf@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1299706937 1353 80.91.229.12 (9 Mar 2011 21:42:17 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 21:42:17 +0000 (UTC) To: "'Evans Winner'" , Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Mar 09 22:42:12 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PxR8y-0004ZB-Nd for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:42:09 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:50250 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PxR8y-0005LE-7R for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:42:08 -0500 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=46624 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PxR77-0003wH-Ij for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:40:14 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PxR75-0005Ok-9Y for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:40:13 -0500 Original-Received: from rcsinet10.oracle.com ([148.87.113.121]:32351) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PxR75-0005OX-24 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:40:11 -0500 Original-Received: from rcsinet15.oracle.com (rcsinet15.oracle.com [148.87.113.117]) by rcsinet10.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.2) with ESMTP id p29Le7Wn031053 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Wed, 9 Mar 2011 21:40:08 GMT Original-Received: from acsmt355.oracle.com (acsmt355.oracle.com [141.146.40.155]) by rcsinet15.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.1) with ESMTP id p29JCeLT022009; Wed, 9 Mar 2011 21:40:06 GMT Original-Received: from abhmt009.oracle.com by acsmt354.oracle.com with ESMTP id 1123839251299706778; Wed, 09 Mar 2011 13:39:38 -0800 Original-Received: from dradamslap1 (/130.35.178.194) by default (Oracle Beehive Gateway v4.0) with ESMTP ; Wed, 09 Mar 2011 13:39:38 -0800 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 Thread-Index: Acven3VXVO9mRJ0/TaCHA+dZ4QvShwAAF6/g In-Reply-To: <87y64oouuf.fsf@gmail.com> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5994 X-Source-IP: acsmt355.oracle.com [141.146.40.155] X-Auth-Type: Internal IP X-CT-RefId: str=0001.0A090205.4D77F3B7.0039,ss=1,fgs=0 X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-Received-From: 148.87.113.121 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:137005 Archived-At: > | By itself, that wouldn't clue users in. A separate > | question would be whether to also have an (almost) > | empty `.emacs' by default, containing just an explicit > | load of `custom-file'. I'd say yes. > > Out of curiosity, would this complicate the process of Emacs > installation? Dunno. Don't think so. > Is the idea that the first time a user runs > Emacs, it checks to see if there is a .emacs in (getenv > "HOME"), and if not, creates it? Yes. That is one possibility. (Of course, emacs -Q would act as now: ignore any init file.) > Would that complicate things for system administrators? Dunno. Why would it? > Presumably they should > use site-init.el, but I know some add some kind of simple > .emacs file to the user account creation routine. Well if the sysadmins give their users a standard (for their organization) default .emacs, then that would be used, no? IOW, presumably they or the user would put that file in the user's $HOME, so it would be picked up by Emacs - same as now. I don't see anything changing here. > By the way, for the default location of the custom file, I > would suggest ~/.emacs.d. Sounds good to me. But see also the other possibility discussed in the referenced thread and mentioned again today by Stephen: we autoload `custom-file' after the .emacs, etc. Either way is fine with me, and there are no doubt other possibilities. The basic idea is to give the user a `custom-file' by default (empty), and have Emacs automatically load it. Users would still have control over whether and when to load it. Customizations by Customize would always go to the `custom-file', unless `custom-file' raises an error. (Or is some particular value - see the thread for other possibilities here.) The point is that we would make sure that users would still have the possibility of not using `custom-file' at all and thus having Customize write to .emacs instead. That just would not be the default behavior.