watching files

watching files

[Andreas Seik]

Hello NG,
I would like to habe emacs check, when ever i reopen a buffer, if the
correspondig file on disk has changed meanwile. Emacs shold ask me, if i
want to relode the newer version.
I thik this feater existsts, but i can't find the switch.
Can someone help me?

Thank You

PS: sorry for my bad english

Re: watching files

[rgb]

> I would like to habe emacs check, when ever i reopen a buffer, if the
> correspondig file on disk has changed meanwile. Emacs shold ask me, if i
> want to relode the newer version.
> I thik this feater existsts, but i can't find the switch.

What version of Emacs are you using?  What platform?
You shouldn't need a switch.
IIRC that is the default behavior (unless the files are remote).
It could be your OS doesn't support the features Emacs uses to do this.

Re: watching files

[Anselm Helbig]

> I would like to habe emacs check, when ever i reopen a buffer, if the
> correspondig file on disk has changed meanwile. Emacs shold ask me, if i
> want to relode the newer version.
> I thik this feater existsts, but i can't find the switch.

hallo andreas, 

emacs checks if there have been changes to the file you are editing
when you try to save it. that's what rgb meant. 

there's a minor mode you can active, `auto-revert-mode', which checks
in certain intervals if the file you are editing changed and then
loads the new version. i'm not sure if it asks you when there is a
conflict, i remember that i lost some changes i did when i was still
using it. at least there were problems when you're working on a remote
server which is a little out of sync with your system clock (a few
seconds may be trouble enough if you save often).

to try it for all buffers now, drop this into your .emacs:

	(global-auto-revert-mode 1)

grüße, 

anselm

Re: watching files

[Andreas Seik]

Anselm Helbig wrote:

Hallo Anselm,

Thank You for your help, it seems that emacs is missing an important
feature. When you switch on auto-revert-mode emacs will overwrite unchanged
buffers without notice, and does nothing with changed buffers when the
correspondig file changes.
An interactive mode seems to be missing :-(

viele Grüße
Andreas

>> I would like to habe emacs check, when ever i reopen a buffer, if the
>> correspondig file on disk has changed meanwile. Emacs shold ask me, if i
>> want to relode the newer version.
>> I thik this feater existsts, but i can't find the switch.
> 
> hallo andreas,
> 
> emacs checks if there have been changes to the file you are editing
> when you try to save it. that's what rgb meant.
> 
> there's a minor mode you can active, `auto-revert-mode', which checks
> in certain intervals if the file you are editing changed and then
> loads the new version. i'm not sure if it asks you when there is a
> conflict, i remember that i lost some changes i did when i was still
> using it. at least there were problems when you're working on a remote
> server which is a little out of sync with your system clock (a few
> seconds may be trouble enough if you save often).
> 
> to try it for all buffers now, drop this into your .emacs:
> 
> (global-auto-revert-mode 1)
> 
> grüße,
> 
> anselm

Re: watching files

[John Russell]

Andreas Seik <andreas_neu@gmxpro.de> writes:

> Anselm Helbig wrote:
>
> Hallo Anselm,
>
> Thank You for your help, it seems that emacs is missing an important
> feature. When you switch on auto-revert-mode emacs will overwrite unchanged
> buffers without notice, and does nothing with changed buffers when the
> correspondig file changes.
> An interactive mode seems to be missing :-(

in all my emacs experience, every time a file is edited outside of emacs
as soon as I type any key in that files buffer in emacs I am asked if 
I want to revert the file because the contents have changed on disk.

This does not happen for you?  It sounds like just what you want.

John

>
> viele Grüße
> Andreas
>
>>> I would like to habe emacs check, when ever i reopen a buffer, if the
>>> correspondig file on disk has changed meanwile. Emacs shold ask me, if i
>>> want to relode the newer version.
>>> I thik this feater existsts, but i can't find the switch.
>> 
>> hallo andreas,
>> 
>> emacs checks if there have been changes to the file you are editing
>> when you try to save it. that's what rgb meant.
>> 
>> there's a minor mode you can active, `auto-revert-mode', which checks
>> in certain intervals if the file you are editing changed and then
>> loads the new version. i'm not sure if it asks you when there is a
>> conflict, i remember that i lost some changes i did when i was still
>> using it. at least there were problems when you're working on a remote
>> server which is a little out of sync with your system clock (a few
>> seconds may be trouble enough if you save often).
>> 
>> to try it for all buffers now, drop this into your .emacs:
>> 
>> (global-auto-revert-mode 1)
>> 
>> grüße,
>> 
>> anselm

Re: watching files

[Andreas Seik]

John Russell wrote:
> in all my emacs experience, every time a file is edited outside of emacs
> as soon as I type any key in that files buffer in emacs I am asked if
> I want to revert the file because the contents have changed on disk.
> 
> This does not happen for you?  It sounds like just what you want.
> John

Hello John,
No it does not happen for me. I'm using GNU Emacs v 21.3 on SUSE Linux.
I read the info files of emacs and found something about reverting, but not
the behavior your describe.
I switched on global-auto-revert-mode but that mode is not interactive.

Greetings,
Christoph