all messages for Emacs-related lists mirrored at yhetil.org
 help / color / mirror / code / Atom feed
* Is it generally better practice to specify local variables at the first line for Org files?
@ 2016-10-04 20:36 Jorge Morais Neto
  2016-10-05  6:40 ` Marco Wahl
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 5+ messages in thread
From: Jorge Morais Neto @ 2016-10-04 20:36 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: org mode

Hi.  In most of my Emacs files, I set any file local variables using a local
variables list near the end of the file.  However I just realized a pitfall.
Emacs, according to its manual, only recognizes this local variables list if
its location fulfills two criteria:
1. It starts no more than 3000 characters from the end of the file.
2. It is on the last page if the file is divided into pages.

This means that if I refile some Org subtree to another Org file, and the
refile target is below the local variables list (e. g. if I refile to the top
level, so that Org chooses the end of the file) then the local variables list
may start failing one of the criteria and thus silently stop working.  There
may be other problematic scenarios.

Therefore it seems that, for Org files, it is good practice to avoid this
pitfall by specifying any file local variables via the other method, i.e. on
the first line.  I ask for confirmation that this is a general Org Mode good
practice before I adopt it for all my existing Org files and any future ones.

And if this is in fact a general Org Mode good practice, I propose documenting
it in both manuals: the Emacs manual at [[info:emacs#Specifying File Variables]]
and the Org manual somewhere.

Regards

-- 
• I am Brazilian.  I hope my English is correct and I welcome corrections.
• Please adopt free formats like PDF, ODF, Org, LaTeX, Opus, WebM and 7z.
• Free (as in free speech) software for Android: https://f-droid.org/

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 5+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2016-10-05 13:51 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 5+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2016-10-04 20:36 Is it generally better practice to specify local variables at the first line for Org files? Jorge Morais Neto
2016-10-05  6:40 ` Marco Wahl
2016-10-05  9:33   ` Nicolas Goaziou
2016-10-05 11:35     ` John Kitchin
2016-10-05 13:50     ` Marco Wahl

Code repositories for project(s) associated with this external index

	https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git
	https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs/org-mode.git

This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.