Avoiding 'reference to free variable' warnings while splitting elisp source files

Avoiding 'reference to free variable' warnings while splitting elisp source files

[Joe Riel]

Is there a sane way to split the source of an elisp file
while avoiding the 'reference to free variable' warnings
when byte-compiling?

The problem arises when a variable defined in one file
is used in another.   How does one avoid those errors?
I have half a dozen source files that are all required
by one package.  A variable may be used in several files
(generally it is used mainly in one file, which is where
it is defined (with defvar), but, must be used in another.
I've tried adding 

(eval-when-compile
  (require 'other-source-file))

to avoid the error; that sort of works, but not
when two files each uses a variable defined in the other.

There has to be a better way.



-- 
Joe Riel

Re: Avoiding 'reference to free variable' warnings while splitting elisp source files

[Jay Belanger]

> Is there a sane way to split the source of an elisp file
> while avoiding the 'reference to free variable' warnings
> when byte-compiling?
>
> The problem arises when a variable defined in one file
> is used in another.   How does one avoid those errors?

You can put
(defvar variable-name)
in the other file.

Re: Avoiding 'reference to free variable' warnings while splitting elisp source files

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

Jay Belanger <jay.p.belanger@gmail.com> writes:

>> Is there a sane way to split the source of an elisp file
>> while avoiding the 'reference to free variable' warnings
>> when byte-compiling?
>>
>> The problem arises when a variable defined in one file
>> is used in another.   How does one avoid those errors?
>
> You can put
> (defvar variable-name)
> in the other file.

Nope.  Because then the initialization depends on the order of loading
the files.

You can put the defvar in a variable.el file that is required by all the
others.

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/
A bad day in () is better than a good day in {}.

Re: Avoiding 'reference to free variable' warnings while splitting elisp source files

[Jay Belanger]

>>> Is there a sane way to split the source of an elisp file
>>> while avoiding the 'reference to free variable' warnings
>>> when byte-compiling?
>>>
>>> The problem arises when a variable defined in one file
>>> is used in another.   How does one avoid those errors?
>>
>> You can put
>> (defvar variable-name)
>> in the other file.
>
> Nope.  Because then the initialization depends on the order of loading
> the files.

If there is no initial value in the defvar, then the only thing the
defvar does is quiet the compiler.

Re: Avoiding 'reference to free variable' warnings while splitting elisp source files

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

Jay Belanger <jay.p.belanger@gmail.com> writes:

>>>> Is there a sane way to split the source of an elisp file
>>>> while avoiding the 'reference to free variable' warnings
>>>> when byte-compiling?
>>>>
>>>> The problem arises when a variable defined in one file
>>>> is used in another.   How does one avoid those errors?
>>>
>>> You can put
>>> (defvar variable-name)
>>> in the other file.
>>
>> Nope.  Because then the initialization depends on the order of loading
>> the files.
>
> If there is no initial value in the defvar, then the only thing the
> defvar does is quiet the compiler.

Right.  I was confused.

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/
A bad day in () is better than a good day in {}.