Re: amd@gnu.org: eshell and external commands

[John Wiegley <johnw@newartisans.com>]

Chong Yidong <cyd@stupidchicken.com> writes:

> John Wiegley <johnw@newartisans.com> writes:
>
>> Ok, I have to give this some serious thought, which I cannot do just now
>> because I'm about to move to Grenada.  After a week or so has gone by and I've
>> settled in, then I can focus enough to find the right answer.
>
> Hi John,
>
> Any further thoughts on this problem?

Yes, after looking into it, I've discovered that there is a facility for
countering this very behavior.  For commands -- like ls -- which need special
care, the command must be added to `eshell-complex-commands'.  I have seen
this behavior only from ls so far, so I think it should be added directly to
that variable's default value in esh-cmd.el.

  (defcustom eshell-complex-commands '("ls")
    "*A list of commands names or functions, that determine complexity.
  That is, if a command is defined by a function named eshell/NAME,
  and NAME is part of this list, it is invoked as a complex command.
  Complex commands are always correct, but run much slower.  If a
  command works fine without being part of this list, then it doesn't
  need to be.
  
  If an entry is a function, it will be called with the name, and should
  return non-nil if the command is complex."
    :type '(repeat :tag "Commands"
                   (choice (string :tag "Name")
                           (function :tag "Predicate")))
    :group 'eshell-cmd)

John