emacs save/restore state?

emacs save/restore state?

[Nelson H. F. Beebe]

Is anyone on this list aware of functions to save and restore emacs
state, including all buffers (both temporary and file-related),
command history, kill-ring, and loaded emacs libraries?

I frequently want the ability to switch from one emacs session to
another, sometimes after a version upgrade, and other times between
different machines.  Because my emacs sessions frequently run for many
months, the state is complex, and painful to reconstruct.  Computers
should work for people, not the other way around, so it would be nice
to do something like this:

	M-x save-state<RETurn>
	Filename: $HOME/emacs.state

	M-x restore-state<RETurn>
	Filename: $HOME/emacs.state

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Nelson H. F. Beebe                    Tel: +1 801 581 5254                  -
- University of Utah                    FAX: +1 801 581 4148                  -
- Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB    Internet e-mail: beebe@math.utah.edu  -
- 155 S 1400 E RM 233                       beebe@acm.org  beebe@computer.org -
- Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA    URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ -
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: emacs save/restore state?

[Andreas Schwab]

"Nelson H. F. Beebe" <beebe@math.utah.edu> writes:

> Is anyone on this list aware of functions to save and restore emacs
> state, including all buffers (both temporary and file-related),
> command history, kill-ring, and loaded emacs libraries?

Does desktop-save work?

Andreas.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, schwab@linux-m68k.org
GPG Key fingerprint = 58CA 54C7 6D53 942B 1756  01D3 44D5 214B 8276 4ED5
"And now for something completely different."

Re: emacs save/restore state?

[Nelson H. F. Beebe]

>> ...
>> > Is anyone on this list aware of functions to save and restore emacs
>> > state, including all buffers (both temporary and file-related),
>> > command history, kill-ring, and loaded emacs libraries?
>> 
>> Does desktop-save work?
>> ...

Thanks!  M-x desktop-save and M-x desktop-read get most of what I
want. 

Three things that I noted are missing are (1) a time-ordered list of
loaded libraries, (2) the kill ring, and (3) the command history.

The search history is saved, and that is certainly nice.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Nelson H. F. Beebe                    Tel: +1 801 581 5254                  -
- University of Utah                    FAX: +1 801 581 4148                  -
- Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB    Internet e-mail: beebe@math.utah.edu  -
- 155 S 1400 E RM 233                       beebe@acm.org  beebe@computer.org -
- Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA    URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ -
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RE: emacs save/restore state?

[Drew Adams]

> >> Does desktop-save work?
> 
> Thanks!  M-x desktop-save and M-x desktop-read get most of what I
> want. 
> 
> Three things that I noted are missing are (1) a time-ordered list of
> loaded libraries, (2) the kill ring, and (3) the command history.
> The search history is saved, and that is certainly nice.

See also `savehist.el' and option `save-additional-variables'.
Try vars `load-history', `kill-ring', and `command-history'.

Re: emacs save/restore state?

[Stefan Monnier]

> See also `savehist.el' and option `save-additional-variables'.
> Try vars `load-history', `kill-ring', and `command-history'.

Nitpick: `load-history' is not a variable you should touch in this
way, tho (e.g. it won't magically load the corresponding libraries).
Also he may also want to use `desktop-globals-to-save' instead of
savehist.el.


        Stefan

RE: emacs save/restore state?

[Drew Adams]

> > See also `savehist.el' and option `save-additional-variables'.
> > Try vars `load-history', `kill-ring', and `command-history'.
> 
> Nitpick: `load-history' is not a variable you should touch in this
> way, tho (e.g. it won't magically load the corresponding libraries).
> Also he may also want to use `desktop-globals-to-save' instead of
> savehist.el.

Agreed.

Re: emacs save/restore state?

[Dave Abrahams]

on Sat Apr 07 2012, "Drew Adams" <drew.adams-AT-oracle.com> wrote:

>> >> Does desktop-save work?
>> 
>> Thanks!  M-x desktop-save and M-x desktop-read get most of what I
>> want. 
>> 
>> Three things that I noted are missing are (1) a time-ordered list of
>> loaded libraries, (2) the kill ring, and (3) the command history.
>> The search history is saved, and that is certainly nice.
>
> See also `savehist.el' and option `save-additional-variables'.
> Try vars `load-history', `kill-ring', and `command-history'.

I use session.el to get history saving.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com

Re: emacs save/restore state?

[Philipp Haselwarter]

A suggestion of variables I find useful:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
desktop-globals-to-save
(append
 '((extended-command-history . 128)
   (minibuffer-history       . 128)
   (org-clock-history        .  32)
   (query-replace-history    . 128)
   (read-expression-history  . 256)
   (regexp-history           . 128)
   (regexp-search-ring       . 128)
   (search-ring              . 128)
   (shell-command-history    . 128)
   compile-history
   desktop-buffer-args-list
   dired-regexp-history
   dired-shell-command-history
   find-args-history
   gnus-group-history
   grep-history
   gud-gdb-history
   jde-interactive-make-arg-history
   kill-ring
   log-edit-comment-ring
   magit-git-command-history
   my-xdg-history)
 desktop-globals-to-save)
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---


-- 
Philipp Haselwarter

Re: emacs save/restore state?

[Stefan Monnier]

> A suggestion of variables I find useful:

Any reason why you don't use savehist-mode?
This said, the redundancy between the two is a bit annoying, tho I'm not
sure how to get rid of it.


        Stefan

RE: emacs save/restore state?

[Drew Adams]

> > A suggestion of variables I find useful:
> 
> Any reason why you don't use savehist-mode?
> This said, the redundancy between the two is a bit annoying, 
> tho I'm not sure how to get rid of it.

FYI, this was discussed in a fair amount of length on emacs-devel:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2007-12/msg00583.html

Re: emacs save/restore state?

[Stefan Monnier]

>> > A suggestion of variables I find useful:
>> Any reason why you don't use savehist-mode?
>> This said, the redundancy between the two is a bit annoying, 
>> tho I'm not sure how to get rid of it.
> FYI, this was discussed in a fair amount of length on emacs-devel:
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2007-12/msg00583.html

The problem was discussed, but not the (potential) solution.


        Stefan

RE: emacs save/restore state?

[Drew Adams]

> >> This said, the redundancy between the two is a bit annoying, 
> >> tho I'm not sure how to get rid of it.
> > FYI, this was discussed in a fair amount of length on emacs-devel:
> > http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2007-12/msg00583.html
> The problem was discussed, but not the (potential) solution.

True.  This wishlist occurs to me, to keep in mind when looking for a solution:

1. Factoring out some code commonality would be good (modulo other wishes).

2. Users should be able to save histories without necessarily saving all the
other desktop stuff.

3. Users should be able to save other desktop stuff without necessarily saving
histories.

4. Users can save multiple desktops, which should be able to have different
saved histories.  IOW, a given history variable, e.g., `file-name-history',
could have a different saved value in different desktops.

Re: emacs save/restore state?

[Stefan Monnier]

> True.  This wishlist occurs to me, to keep in mind when looking for
> a solution:
> 1. Factoring out some code commonality would be good (modulo other wishes).
> 2. Users should be able to save histories without necessarily saving
>    all the other desktop stuff.
> 3. Users should be able to save other desktop stuff without
>    necessarily saving histories.
> 4. Users can save multiple desktops, which should be able to have
>    different saved histories.  IOW, a given history variable, e.g.,
>    `file-name-history', could have a different saved value in
>    different desktops.

Agreed.  I think the way forward is to restructure the code so
desktop.el can use savehist-mode (e.g. so it can tell it where/when to
save the history).

There's a similar issue with saveplace.el (again, with slightly
different semantic but no good reason why saveplace.el can't provide the
needed flexibility for desktop.el to use it and let the user choose
between the usual desktop.el semantics or the usual saveplace.el
semantics).


        Stefan