bug#16548: 24.3; remove "buffer has clients" prompt

bug#16548: 24.3; remove "buffer has clients" prompt

[Jarek Czekalski]

When we try to kill a buffer, that was opened through
emacsclient, Emacs warns us: "buffer still has clients".
If we want to really kill it, we must answer "yes" (3 letters plus return).
If we modified the buffer, then in total we have 2 prompts to answer.
That seems too much and in help-gnu-emacs [1] no one could
provide a justification for that, other users seemed to
agree is is redundant. Eli had had some doubts, but
probably he got rid of them.

I suggest to remove the "buffer has clients" prompt completely.
If the buffer was not modified, it would close at once.

I want to prepare a patch, but may it be applied for 24.4,
despite feature freeze?

Jarek

[1] http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-gnu-emacs/2013-11/msg00382.html

bug#16548: 24.3; remove "buffer has clients" prompt

[Glenn Morris]

Jarek Czekalski wrote:

> I suggest to remove the "buffer has clients" prompt completely.
> If the buffer was not modified, it would close at once.
>
> I want to prepare a patch, but may it be applied for 24.4,
> despite feature freeze?

IMO such a change is not appropriate at this time.

bug#16548: [PATCH] 24.3; remove "buffer has clients" prompt

[Jarek Czekalski]

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This patch simply removes the code for "buffer still has clients" query.

Tested on trunk from today.
The ChangeLog entry must be moved to the right place before commit.

Jarek


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# HG changeset patch
# Parent 1cc4f193d0c14f255fb79a3a360d364f962d1514

diff -r 1cc4f193d0c1 lisp/ChangeLog
--- a/lisp/ChangeLog	Sat Apr 05 08:48:37 2014 +0200
+++ b/lisp/ChangeLog	Fri Apr 18 21:19:14 2014 +0200
@@ -16,6 +16,12 @@
 	* files.el (lock-buffer, unlock-buffer, file-locked-p):
 	Remove fallback aliases, since they are always defined now.
 
+2014-04-18  Jarek Czekalski  <jarekczek@poczta.onet.pl>
+
+	Remove unneeded prompt when closing a buffer with active emacsclient.
+	* server.el (server-start): Remove the only call to:
+	* server.el (server-kill-buffer-query-function): Remove.
+
 2014-03-24  Daniel Colascione  <dancol@dancol.org>
 
 	* emacs-lisp/cl-macs.el (cl--do-arglist): Use `plist-member'
diff -r 1cc4f193d0c1 lisp/server.el
--- a/lisp/server.el	Sat Apr 05 08:48:37 2014 +0200
+++ b/lisp/server.el	Fri Apr 18 21:19:14 2014 +0200
@@ -642,8 +642,6 @@
 	(cl-letf (((default-file-modes) ?\700))
 	  (add-hook 'suspend-tty-functions 'server-handle-suspend-tty)
 	  (add-hook 'delete-frame-functions 'server-handle-delete-frame)
-	  (add-hook 'kill-buffer-query-functions
-                    'server-kill-buffer-query-function)
 	  (add-hook 'kill-emacs-query-functions
                     'server-kill-emacs-query-function)
 	  (add-hook 'kill-emacs-hook 'server-force-stop) ;Cleanup upon exit.
@@ -1472,22 +1470,6 @@
 	(save-buffer)))
     (server-buffer-done (current-buffer))))
 
-;; Ask before killing a server buffer.
-;; It was suggested to release its client instead,
-;; but I think that is dangerous--the client would proceed
-;; using whatever is on disk in that file. -- rms.
-(defun server-kill-buffer-query-function ()
-  "Ask before killing a server buffer."
-  (or (not server-buffer-clients)
-      (let ((res t))
-	(dolist (proc server-buffer-clients)
-          (when (and (memq proc server-clients)
-                     (eq (process-status proc) 'open))
-            (setq res nil)))
-         res)
-      (yes-or-no-p (format "Buffer `%s' still has clients; kill it? "
-			   (buffer-name (current-buffer))))))
-
 (defun server-kill-emacs-query-function ()
   "Ask before exiting Emacs if it has live clients."
   (or (not server-clients)

bug#16548: [PATCH} 24.3; remove "buffer has clients" prompt

[Jarek Czekalski]

If no one objects, I'll commit this in a week.

Best
Jarek

bug#16548: 24.3; remove "buffer has clients" prompt

[Jarek Czekalski]

Applied as r117062 [1]. Will be included in the next version after 24.4.

http://bzr.savannah.gnu.org/lh/emacs/trunk/revision/117062

bug#16548: 24.3; remove "buffer has clients" prompt

[Tim Howes]

I think this prompt should be kept. If I'm interpreting RMS's comment
correctly, he's worried about what happens when emacsclient is started from
some script or program, where the program is opening an editor window (most
likely using the EDITOR shell variable) and then waiting for the editor to
be done so that it can proceed and make use of the contents of the file. 

If a user has, say, forgotten why that particular buffer was opened, the
prompt reminds them that there is a client waiting on it, and the program
that started that client is possibly going to take some action using the
file contents. Killing the buffer will not cancel that action. Instead, the
program will proceed using whatever is currently saved in the file. 

This could lead to a mistake. Here's a scenario: I'm testing some
experimental program that runs into an error. The program wants me to send a
bug report to the developers, so it opens up an editor with a template email
(emacsclient -c template.txt), which I'm supposed to fill out, and it will
then send the email for me. I start writing a message, but don't save it. I
get distracted or start working on other things. I open another emacs client
frame and work on some other files. I finish with those other files, and
kill the buffers. Then I'm presented with the unsaved email from earlier. I
decide I don't care about sending the bug report, so I kill the buffer. I
expect that the email will not be sent, but the program is actually going to
proceed and send the uncompleted template. 

The prompt reminds me that the buffer is being used as an "editor" by some
other process. If I kill it carelessly, that process may end up doing
something unwanted. If I'm well aware of the circumstances and want to skip
the prompt, I should use C-x # ("done editing"). If I'm not worried about
such mistakes ever occurring, then I can remove the hook or change key
bindings in my emacs config. But it's probably best to have the prompt
appear by default, to help unaware users avoid mistakes.



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bug#16548: 24.3; remove "buffer has clients" prompt

[Andreas Amann]

Maybe the right thing to do is to exit emacsclient with an error code if
the buffer is killed through another client? This should then be caught
by the script, which in the above example should not send an email if
emacsclient returns with error exit status. 

bug#16548: 24.3; remove "buffer has clients" prompt

[Tim Howes]

Well, I think the same concern still applies even if only one client frame is
open. Some users might have all their "editor" buffers started by other
applications opening in the same existing frame. And the script or
application that opens the editor may not be set up to handle the error
codes correctly.

I was going to say, if the prompt bothers you, why not just add (remove-hook
'kill-buffer-query-functions 'server-kill-buffer-query-function) to your
emacs config. But it appears that doesn't work. I guess the server-specific
hooks get loaded after the init files.

Someone on StackOverflow suggested the following:
  (defun server-remove-kill-buffer-hook () 
      (remove-hook 'kill-buffer-query-functions
'server-kill-buffer-query-function))
  (add-hook 'server-visit-hook 'server-remove-kill-buffer-hook)

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/268088/how-to-remove-the-prompt-for-killing-emacsclient-buffers

I guess it would be easier if there was simply a variable, with a name such
as server-query-before-kill-buffer, that could be set to t or nil.



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