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: always put Customizations in `custom-file', never in `user-init-file' Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:08:09 -0800 Message-ID: References: <871w9udurc.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1197328131 5059 80.91.229.12 (10 Dec 2007 23:08:51 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:08:51 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Emacs-Devel To: "Stephen J. Turnbull" , "Lennart Borgman \(gmail\)" Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Dec 11 00:09:00 2007 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 4.50) id 1J1rjw-000794-Hs for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:08:44 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1J1rjf-0004Gm-05 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:08:27 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1J1rjc-0004Fl-Bp for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:08:24 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1J1rja-0004EX-HC for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:08:23 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1J1rja-0004EL-Dx for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:08:22 -0500 Original-Received: from rgminet01.oracle.com ([148.87.113.118]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1J1rjZ-0007DW-Va for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:08:22 -0500 Original-Received: from agmgw1.us.oracle.com (agmgw1.us.oracle.com [152.68.180.212]) by rgminet01.oracle.com (Switch-3.2.4/Switch-3.1.6) with ESMTP id lBAN8DaA025844; Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:08:13 -0700 Original-Received: from rcsmt251.oracle.com (rcsmt251.oracle.com [148.87.90.196]) by agmgw1.us.oracle.com (Switch-3.2.0/Switch-3.2.0) with ESMTP id lBAFUrIM026541; Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:08:11 -0700 Original-Received: from dhcp-4op11-4op12-west-130-35-178-158.us.oracle.com by acsmt350.oracle.com with ESMTP id 3427972541197328086; Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:08:06 -0800 X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) In-Reply-To: <871w9udurc.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198 X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAAI= X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAAI= X-Whitelist: TRUE X-Whitelist: TRUE X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: Linux 2.4-2.6 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:84994 Archived-At: > Well, it's embarrassing to admit, but we really screwed up. Keeping a > backup of the original .emacs should have been enough. I don't know if it's sufficient, but it's necessary. > We didn't. > The thing to be aware of, is that after aborting due to an error, > there are no customizations known to customize, but users will often > save a few customizations so that they can get some work done. I'm not sure I follow completely. Could you run down such a scenario, including when the error occurred? During which Emacs session: before, during, or after migration, and when during the session? > This will then destroy the customization file (at least in our version > of customize) since a custom-save simply writes out the whole state. > Custom has some protection against doing this automatically, I think, > but the migration code wasn't aware of it, and neither were users. > Ooops! Tricky, very tricky. > > The other thing to note is that this was typically reported by people > using Emacs and trying XEmacs. Normally you don't have errors in your > init file. :-) > > I think separate custom-file and automigration are both good ideas. Let's try to find a safe way to do it, then. > Just be aware that (at least in our implementation of custom, but I > think it's probably true of Emacs's, too) there are some ways to go > badly wrong, and be careful to protect the user's init file and > existing customizations. > > > Yes, you are of course right. > > In hindsight, yes, but we had to learn that from experience. The > experience is there, I'd like you to benefit from it. Thanks for reporting the experience. It sounds to me like the potential gotchas could be handled OK, but it would be good for someone more expert in this area to comment. And yes, we should proceed with any such change carefully.