Re: desktop-save problems

[ken <gebser@mousecar.com>]

On 07/13/2016 10:38 PM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> From: ken <gebser@mousecar.com>
>> Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2016 18:24:28 -0400
>>
>> On 07/13/2016 04:02 PM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>>>> From: ken <gebser@mousecar.com>
>>>> Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2016 15:49:24 -0400
>>>>
>>>>> The way I do it is turn on desktop-save-mode, then Emacs will save the
>>>>> desktop when I exit automatically.
>>>> This means that the desktop isn't saved when the system crashes, e.g.,
>>>> the power suddenly goes out, yes?
>>> If this is frequent enough, you can save manually at strategic times.
>> Years ago desktop-save and desktop-read both worked properly out of the
>> box... didn'tl even have to invoke anything.  It just kept track of what
>> files/buffers were open and opened them again in the next session,
>> whether the previous session was graceful or a crash... files opened via
>> tramp too.  How/Why did things get messed up?
> It didn't.  It still works the same for me, except now it also saves
> and restores frame and window configuration.

Actually it did, at least for me.  I used it all the time, both at home 
and at work.  I remember working with the tramp maintainer guy so emacs 
would work over a proxy server and even files edited via proxy were 
saved to the desktop.  Very cool stuff.  I almost got our entire 
department at work to switch the standard editor (what we were all 
forced to use) from vi to emacs.  But there was too much intransigence.

I've never gotten frame and window configuration to be saved between 
sessions though.  Word was, there wasn't enough support for it in the 
window manager.  So if that's working in a future version, that would be 
excellent.  Which emacs version does that happen, if you happen to know?


>>>> Also, in my emacs (24.3.1) I'm always prompted for the directory to save
>>>> the desktop in.  Is there a way to specify one directory where the
>>>> desktop is saved so I don't have this prompt come up?
>>> It doesn't prompt me, it uses the ~/.emacs.d/ directory by default;
>>> the directory from which the desktop was read overrides that.  I'm
>>> never asked any such questions.  Something is wrong with your setup.
>> This is how it works when I start emacs with "emacs -Q".
> Then I suggest to look into your customizations for something that
> defeats that.

All desktop customizations are set to Standard (unchanged) except these:

  Desktop Files Not To Save - None
  Desktop Save - Always save
  Desktop Save Mode - On

Is there something which needs to be changed from Standard to avoid that 
prompt?

> ....