From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: always put Customizations in `custom-file', never in `user-init-file' Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 07:56:07 +0900 Message-ID: <871w9udurc.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: <475DA1D2.7020701@gmail.com> <873auadz8l.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <475DAEAE.2040305@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1197327191 1963 80.91.229.12 (10 Dec 2007 22:53:11 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:53:11 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Drew Adams , Emacs-Devel To: "Lennart Borgman (gmail)" Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Dec 10 23:53:19 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1J1rUz-0000lv-CF for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:53:17 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1J1rUh-0008NO-PU for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:52:59 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1J1rUd-0008Mx-J4 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:52:55 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1J1rUa-0008Mj-1P for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:52:54 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1J1rUZ-0008Mg-Ry for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:52:51 -0500 Original-Received: from mtps01.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.223]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1J1rUa-00049y-5Y for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:52:52 -0500 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (unknown [130.158.99.156]) by mtps01.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id 05A911535A8; Tue, 11 Dec 2007 07:52:49 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id E53E81A2E12; Tue, 11 Dec 2007 07:56:07 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: <475DAEAE.2040305@gmail.com> X-Mailer: VM 7.17 under 21.5 (beta28) "fuki" (+CVS-20070621) XEmacs Lucid X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:84991 Archived-At: Lennart Borgman (gmail) writes: > Then it might be best to avoid automatic migration, but to give a > command to migrate custom data to custom-file. Well, it's embarrassing to admit, but we really screwed up. Keeping a backup of the original .emacs should have been enough. We didn't. The thing to be aware of, is that after aborting due to an error, there are no customizations known to customize, but users will often save a few customizations so that they can get some work done. This will then destroy the customization file (at least in our version of customize) since a custom-save simply writes out the whole state. Custom has some protection against doing this automatically, I think, but the migration code wasn't aware of it, and neither were users. Ooops! Tricky, very tricky. The other thing to note is that this was typically reported by people using Emacs and trying XEmacs. Normally you don't have errors in your init file. :-) I think separate custom-file and automigration are both good ideas. Just be aware that (at least in our implementation of custom, but I think it's probably true of Emacs's, too) there are some ways to go badly wrong, and be careful to protect the user's init file and existing customizations. > Yes, you are of course right. In hindsight, yes, but we had to learn that from experience. The experience is there, I'd like you to benefit from it.