Re: Info-insert-dir

[martin rudalics <rudalics@gmx.at>]

 >     Probably.  It's a customizable variable and `wid-edit' doesn't even
 >     check if the user puts valid directory names in there.
 >
 > It shouldn't check that.  We do not try to stop users from putting
 > nonexistent directory names into Lisp variables.

I meant `wid-edit' doesn't even check whether it's a "directory name" in
the sense of a filename ending with a slash (`wid-edit' doesn't
discriminate directories and files although it provides separate widgets
for them).

 > It would be incorrect to change call-process to change the default
 > directory on its own.  Often the execution of a command depends on the
 > current directory, so that if the current directory is nonexistent, an
 > error is the right thing.

Agreed.

 > We could make a subroutine which does this and calls call-process.

What about `call-process-region', `start-process', `shell-command'?

Maybe we could introduce a macro like

(defmacro with-valid-default-directory (&rest body)
   "Run BODY with `default-directory' bound to an existing directory."
   (declare (indent 0) (debug t))
   `(let ((default-directory
	   (if (and (stringp default-directory)
		    (file-directory-p default-directory))
	       default-directory
	     (expand-file-name "~/"))))
      ,@body))