Re: About `name' in loadup.el

[Andy Moreton <andrewjmoreton@gmail.com>]

On Sun 10 Mar 2013, Xue Fuqiao wrote:

> On Sun, 10 Mar 2013 12:19:20 +0530
> Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Xue Fuqiao <xfq.free@gmail.com> writes:
>> 
>> >> > In lisp/loadup.el:
>> >> > 
>> >> >   (let ((name (concat "emacs-" emacs-version)))
>> >> >     (while (string-match "[^-+_.a-zA-Z0-9]+" name)
>> >> >       (setq name (concat (downcase (substring name 0 (match-beginning 0)))
>> >> >   		       "-"
>> >> >   		       (substring name (match-end 0)))))
>> >> >     (message "Adding name %s" name)
>> >> >     (add-name-to-file "emacs" name t))
> [...]
>> >> > And when will characters other than "-+_.a-zA-Z0-9" be in
>> >> > `emacs-version'?
>> >> 
>> >> It's a 'while', not an 'if'.
>> >
>> > Can you explain it more detailed?  Do you mean `emacs-version' won't
>> > contain "-+_.a-zA-Z0-9"?
>
> [...]
>
>> So it is stripping stuff.  
>
> I see.  It makes the program more robust, isn't it?

The name is used to create a hardlink, so to avoid problems it should
only contain characters that are allowed in portable filenames. This
means removing the non-portable characters and replacing them with
something that all filesystems should be able to cope with.

    AndyM