bug#31908: Save file locks in centralized location

bug#31908: Save file locks in centralized location

[Radon Rosborough]

While you have an unsaved buffer, Emacs creates a lock file [1] in the
current directory. This is useful to prevent concurrent edits, but it
is also annoying to have the extra file around: for example, if you
save frequently while you have a Dired pane with a fast Auto Revert
enabled in another window, the lock file will keep appearing and
disappearing rapidly.

I wish for Emacs to save its lock files in some subdirectory of my
`user-emacs-directory', rather than in the same directory as the file
under consideration. Is that possible? If not, is it possible to
implement the feature someday?

I found no relevant discussion on the bug tracker or on emacs-devel,
and I only found the discouraging [2] on Stack Exchange.

[1]: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/File-Locks.html
[2]: https://emacs.stackexchange.com/q/5967/12534

bug#31908: Save file locks in centralized location

[Phil Sainty]

If users had their own custom location for locks, surely the locking
would cease to have any significant purpose, because no one would ever
see a lock created by someone else?

The utility would be reduced to preventing you from simultaneously
using multiple separate emacs instances to edit/write a given file.


-Phil

bug#31908: Save file locks in centralized location

[Radon Rosborough]

> If users had their own custom location for locks, surely the locking
> would cease to have any significant purpose [...] The utility would
> be reduced to preventing you from simultaneously using multiple
> separate emacs instances to edit/write a given file.

I run a single-user system; preventing concurrent edits is the only
purpose of the locking mechanism for me. This feature would hardly
remove "any significant purpose" from it.

bug#31908: Save file locks in centralized location

[Robert Pluim]

Radon Rosborough <radon.neon@gmail.com> writes:

>> If users had their own custom location for locks, surely the locking
>> would cease to have any significant purpose [...] The utility would
>> be reduced to preventing you from simultaneously using multiple
>> separate emacs instances to edit/write a given file.
>
> I run a single-user system; preventing concurrent edits is the only
> purpose of the locking mechanism for me. This feature would hardly
> remove "any significant purpose" from it.

If implemented, this feature would almost certainly be off by default,
so no existing users would end up being surprised.

Robert

bug#31908: Save file locks in centralized location

[Radon Rosborough]

> If implemented, this feature would almost certainly be off by
> default, so no existing users would end up being surprised.

That doesn't bother me in the slightest, and I agree with your
conclusion.

bug#31908: Save file locks in centralized location

[Mauro Mandracchia]

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Is there any update on this?

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bug#31908: Save file locks in centralized location

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Mauro Mandracchia <mauromandracchia@gmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2019 19:35:11 +0100
> 
> Is there any update on this?

Not that I know of, sorry.  Patches to implement this are welcome.

bug#31908: Save file locks in centralized location

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Radon Rosborough <radon.neon@gmail.com> writes:

> While you have an unsaved buffer, Emacs creates a lock file [1] in the
> current directory. This is useful to prevent concurrent edits, but it
> is also annoying to have the extra file around: for example, if you
> save frequently while you have a Dired pane with a fast Auto Revert
> enabled in another window, the lock file will keep appearing and
> disappearing rapidly.

(I'm going through old bug reports that unfortunately weren't resolved
at the time.)

This has been fixed for Emacs 28 by the introduction of the
`lock-file-name-transforms' variable, so I'm closing this bug report.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no