Re: .emacs (load {user-init-file, custom-file} causes duplicate load of both

[Larry Evans <cppljevans@suddenlink.net>]

On 11/11/10 05:22, Larry Evans wrote:
> On 11/11/10 01:45, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>>> From: Larry Evans <cppljevans@suddenlink.net>
>>> Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2010 19:14:25 -0600
>>>
>>> My ~/.emacs file contains (amoung other things):
>>>
>>> ---{~/.emacs---
>>> (setq user-init-file
>>>       (expand-file-name "init.el"
>>> 			(expand-file-name ".emacs.d" "~")))
>>> (setq custom-file
>>>       (expand-file-name "custom.el"
>>> 			(expand-file-name ".xemacs" "~")))
>>> (load-file user-init-file)
>>> (load-file custom-file)
>>> ---}~/.emacs---
>>>
>>> When started with this, the *messages* buffer contains:
>>>
>>> ---{*messages---
>>> Loading /home/evansl/.emacs.d/init.el (source)...
>>> Loading /home/evansl/.recentf...done
>>> Cleaning up the recentf list...done (0 removed)
>>> Loading /home/evansl/.emacs.d/init.el (source)...done
>>> Loading /home/evansl/.xemacs/custom.el (source)...
>>> Loading desktop...done
>>> Loading /home/evansl/.xemacs/custom.el (source)...done
>>> ---}*messages---
>>>
>>> Why are both user-init-file and custom-file both loaded twice?
>>
>> Because you are overriding the values of variables that Emacs uses at
>> startup.  The startup procedure involves some non-trivial logic for
>> loading user-init-file and custom-file, and you are interfering with
>> that logic by setting their values in your ~/.emacs, which is read
>> half-way through the startup process.
>>
>> Simply load the files by name, or use other variables.  Then Emacs
>> should load these files only once, as you want.
>>
>>
> 
> Hi Eli,
> 
> Unfortunately, after renaming the variables to:
> 
>   my-user-init-file
>   my-custom-file
> 
> the *Messages* buffer still had the duplicate loads.
> 
> My real reason for investigating this is I'm trying to avoid
> the error message:
> 
> "Current desktop was not loaded from a file.  Overwrite this desktop file? "
> 
> from function desktop-save in desktop.el.gz.  A trace in that function
> showed:
> 
>   desktop-file-modtime
> 
> was nil.  Further search in that file showed the only place that was
> set was in function desktop-read.  So, in .emacs I put:
> 
>   (desktop-read)
> 
> However, that didn't work.
> 
> Any help resolving this would be appreciated.
[snip]
OOPS.  A more careful reading of *Messages* shows that the there
was a slight difference in the entries:

 Loading /home/evansl/.xemacs/custom.el (source)...
 Loading desktop...done
 Loading /home/evansl/.xemacs/custom.el (source)...done

The 1st Loading was for the start of loading.  The 2nd,
as the trailing ...done indicates, is for the end of the
loading.

Sorry for noise.  However, why am I getting the error message
from function desktop-save?

-Larry