Re: Problems due to grep.el introduction

[storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm)]

"Eli Zaretskii" <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

> Since the `grep' command and related functions are now on a separate
> file grep.el, unbundled Lisp packages that used `grep'-related
> features will become broken if they require `compile' and rely on
> `grep'-related variables and functions to become defined as a result.
> Moreover, the fact that grep.el was added is not even mentioned in
> NEWS, AFAICS.
> 
> (I bumped into this when I installed ID-utils on a machine with a
> relatively recent CVS snapshot of Emacs, and found that "M-x gid"
> barfs becaise grep-regex-alist is not defined.)
> 
> We definitely should mention grep.el in NEWS, 

I didn't think it would cause problems which is why I didn't document
it.  But it's not that trivial...

If some external package uses grep and does (require 'compile),
it is not sufficient just to change that into (require 'grep),
as that would break compatibility with pre 21.4 emacs which doesn't
have grep.el

For 21.4, the simplest fix would be to add (require 'grep)
at the end of compile.el -- after (provide 'compile).



-- 
Kim F. Storm <storm@cua.dk> http://www.cua.dk