From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Giorgos Keramidas Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: setenv's broken case when value is nil Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:12:43 +0200 Message-ID: <873a0zkwqs.fsf@kobe.laptop> References: <20100217175616.608022.FMU4029@unexploded-cow.prv.splode.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1266466380 1879 80.91.229.12 (18 Feb 2010 04:13:00 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:13:00 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Noah Friedman Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Feb 18 05:12:57 2010 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 1Nhxl3-00014y-AB for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:12:57 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:59832 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Nhxl2-0007w7-Ho for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:12:56 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Nhxky-0007vR-ER for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:12:52 -0500 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=55341 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Nhxkx-0007v4-OC for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:12:52 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Nhxkv-0003qM-2w for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:12:51 -0500 Original-Received: from poseidon.ceid.upatras.gr ([150.140.141.169]:33347) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Nhxku-0003q4-SQ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:12:49 -0500 Original-Received: from mail.ceid.upatras.gr (unknown [10.1.0.143]) by poseidon.ceid.upatras.gr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 01151EB48C6; Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:12:45 +0200 (EET) Original-Received: from localhost (europa.ceid.upatras.gr [127.0.0.1]) by mail.ceid.upatras.gr (Postfix) with ESMTP id C05D5160CD2; Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:12:45 +0200 (EET) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ceid.upatras.gr Original-Received: from mail.ceid.upatras.gr ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (europa.ceid.upatras.gr [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id Qtu2T0JjvDiU; Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:12:45 +0200 (EET) Original-Received: from kobe.laptop (ppp-94-64-221-118.home.otenet.gr [94.64.221.118]) by mail.ceid.upatras.gr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 888AC160CD7; Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:12:45 +0200 (EET) Original-Received: from kobe.laptop (kobe.laptop [127.0.0.1]) by kobe.laptop (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id o1I4CjMP060436 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:12:45 +0200 (EET) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Original-Received: (from keramida@localhost) by kobe.laptop (8.14.4/8.14.4/Submit) id o1I4ChjE060178; Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:12:43 +0200 (EET) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) In-Reply-To: <20100217175616.608022.FMU4029@unexploded-cow.prv.splode.com> (Noah Friedman's message of "Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:56:16 -0800 (PST)") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1.92 (berkeley-unix) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) 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:121181 Archived-At: On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:56:16 -0800 (PST), Noah Friedman wrote: > lorentey@elte.hu changed env.el on 2007-08-29 to define setenv-internal and > for setenv always to keep the variable name in process-environment, even if > value is nil. In other words, he removed the distinction between the empty > string and nil, and therefore you can't remove variables from the > environment using setenv anymore. > > Since all kinds of environment variables have meaning when they are > defined, even if they are just set to the empty string, this is a screw. It's not a very common usage pattern of environment variables, but you are right. There are all sorts of environment variables that work (for some value of 'work') even if they are set to empty strings.