>> >> I confirm that 'C-u - C-x C-s' will save me from trouble that I have with
>> >>
>> >>   (add-hook 'before-save-hook 'time-stamp nil t)
>> >>
>> >> because often I don't need to update the timestamp for a small fix.
>> >> It takes too much time to revisit the file with M-x find-file-literally,
>> >> then manually restore the previous timestamp (to not commit unnecessary change),
>> >> and save the file again.  Your patch will help substantially, thanks for this.
>> >
>> > Same here, FWIW.
>>
>> Does anyone object to installing this patch?
>
> I don't necessarily object, but how can we usefully document this
> behavior? who are those users that know by heart the hooks run by
> save-buffer?  And without knowing that, how can a user decide whether
> she does or doesn't want to use this feature: perhaps omitting some
> hook disables behavior that is very important to the user?

It does seem like a blunt way to affect `time-stamp`.

Maybe the time-stamp package should instead provide a prefix command
`time-stamp-inhibit` which makes the next call to `time-stamp`
do nothing.

Or a more hackish way would be for `time-stamp` to consult
`current-prefix-arg`, so as to disable the update of the time stamp when
you do `C-u - C-x C-s`.


        Stefan