writes: > On Sat, Jul 08, 2017 at 09:46:27AM +0100, Sharon Kimble wrote: >> >> I've a problem that seems to have only developed this morning with my >> 'emacs.desktop' file. It is being saved with '\201\236' appearing for >> each entry which then stops it being reloaded on emacs restart. How can >> I kill this problem please and get it back to working sanely again? > > My encoding crystal ball is pretty fuzzy on this one. At first blush > it looks like a "double UTF-8 encoding" (an UTF-8 two-byte sequence which > has been mistook for a single-byte-encoded-something and re-encoded by > some well-meaning piece of software), but I can't actually identify it > as such. Not sure I could help, but this could help to understand what's > going on: > > - (some of) the output of "describe-coding-system" aka "C-h C" > - your platform (Gnu/Linux, Mac, Windows, ??) > > (given your sig I assume a civilised platform, but better ask ;-) > Thanks for this Tomas. I think that this is the answer to what you're saying - --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- Coding system for saving this buffer: U -- utf-8-unix (alias: mule-utf-8-unix) Default coding system (for new files): U -- utf-8 (alias: mule-utf-8) Coding system for keyboard input: U -- utf-8-unix (alias: mule-utf-8-unix) Coding system for terminal output: U -- utf-8-unix (alias: mule-utf-8-unix) Coding system for inter-client cut and paste: U -- utf-8 (alias: mule-utf-8) Defaults for subprocess I/O: decoding: U -- utf-8-unix (alias: mule-utf-8-unix) encoding: U -- utf-8-unix (alias: mule-utf-8-unix) Priority order for recognizing coding systems when reading files: 1. utf-8 (alias: mule-utf-8) 2. iso-2022-7bit 3. iso-latin-1 (alias: iso-8859-1 latin-1) 4. iso-2022-7bit-lock (alias: iso-2022-int-1) 5. iso-2022-8bit-ss2 6. emacs-mule 7. raw-text 8. iso-2022-jp (alias: junet) 9. in-is13194-devanagari (alias: devanagari) 10. chinese-iso-8bit (alias: cn-gb-2312 euc-china euc-cn cn-gb gb2312) 11. utf-8-auto 12. utf-8-with-signature 13. utf-16 14. utf-16be-with-signature (alias: utf-16-be) 15. utf-16le-with-signature (alias: utf-16-le) 16. utf-16be 17. utf-16le 18. japanese-shift-jis (alias: shift_jis sjis) 19. chinese-big5 (alias: big5 cn-big5 cp950) 20. w3m-euc-japan 21. undecided Other coding systems cannot be distinguished automatically from these, and therefore cannot be recognized automatically with the present coding system priorities. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- And my sig is correct, I am running these setups. And thinking about it, these are all settings relating to utf-8 in my config file - --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- (setq selection-coding-system 'utf-8) (prefer-coding-system 'utf-8) ;; Language Environment (set-language-environment 'utf-8) ############## (setq org-export-coding-system 'utf-8) (prefer-coding-system 'utf-8) (set-charset-priority 'unicode) (setq default-process-coding-system '(utf-8-unix . utf-8-unix)) ################### #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp (prefer-coding-system 'utf-8) (set-default-coding-systems 'utf-8) (set-keyboard-coding-system 'utf-8) ;; backwards compatibility as default-buffer-file-coding-system ;; is deprecated in 23.2. (if (boundp 'buffer-file-coding-system) (setq-default buffer-file-coding-system 'utf-8) (setq default-buffer-file-coding-system 'utf-8)) ;; Treat clipboard input as UTF-8 string first; compound text next, etc. (setq x-select-request-type '(UTF8_STRING COMPOUND_TEXT TEXT STRING)) #+END_SRC --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- I've separated the separate c ode blocks using #'s. Is it possible that all of those could be causing my problem? And if so, what can I chop out and yet still retain utf-8 working? Thanks Sharon. -- A taste of linux = http://www.sharons.org.uk TGmeds = http://www.tgmeds.org.uk DrugFacts = https://www.drugfacts.org.uk Debian 9.0, fluxbox 1.3.5-2, emacs 25.1.1, org-mode 9.0.9