GNU bug report logs - #11474
emacsclient passes --eval arguments (but not the '--eval') to alternate editor

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Message #20 received at 11474 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> IRO.UMontreal.CA>
To: Scott Turner <srt19170 <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 11474 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#11474: Patch for Emacsclient --eval bug
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 10:57:56 -0400

[ Thanks for your patience.  ]

> emacsclient --alternate-editor "emacs" --eval "(make-frame-visible)"
> results in an Emacs with a buffer named "(make-frame-visible)".

Hmm... indeed, we have a problem here.  But I think the problem is that
it's very unclear what should be the right behavior.  IOW using both
"--alternate-editor" and "--eval" at the same time is "ill defined" and
the current behavior in that situation is particularly non-sensical.

> The patch provided below simply discards the Elisp arguments when
> emacsclient falls through to the alternate editor.  There may be better
> fixes, but this does the least harm while retaining compatibility.

Silently dropping arguments is not very polite, so I'm not really happy
with your solution.  I think the "right" behavior would be to call the
alternate editor while preserving most arguments; IOW the right fix
in this case would be to add a "--eval" argument, so that your
alternate_editor can decide whether to drop args when it gets an
"--eval" or to prepend all other args with a "--eval=" (or do whatever
else it fancies).

WDYT?


        Stefan

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