GNU bug report logs - #1246
Bug : 23.0.60; "customize emacs" overwrites "custom-set-variables" in .emacs

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Message #5 received at submit <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: "Bernhard Koenig" <b.a.koenig <at> googlemail.com>
To: emacs-pretest-bug <at> gnu.org
Subject: Bug : 23.0.60; "customize emacs" overwrites "custom-set-variables" in .emacs
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:30:38 -0400

I used the "customize emacs" options and made permanent changes
(regarding fonts if I remember correctly). Emacs
changed the .emacs file on disk and modified the
"custom-set-variables". The problem was that all the old
custom-set-variables (like tex-output-view-style and stuff) were
completely overwritten.

Don't know if this is intended but it's quite annoying.

Message #10 received at submit <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: "Lennart Borgman" <lennart.borgman <at> gmail.com>
To: "Bernhard Koenig" <b.a.koenig <at> googlemail.com>,
        1246 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Cc: emacs-pretest-bug <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#1246: Bug : 23.0.60; "customize emacs" overwrites "custom-set-variables" in .emacs
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2008 15:15:24 +0200

On Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 2:30 AM, Bernhard Koenig
<b.a.koenig <at> googlemail.com> wrote:
> I used the "customize emacs" options and made permanent changes
> (regarding fonts if I remember correctly). Emacs
> changed the .emacs file on disk and modified the
> "custom-set-variables". The problem was that all the old
> custom-set-variables (like tex-output-view-style and stuff) were
> completely overwritten.
>
> Don't know if this is intended but it's quite annoying.

When you choose to make the changes permanent it should write that to
custom-file (which by default is your .emacs). It should however
include all the old values. If it did not then something is wrong.

Can you show us your .emacs? Was there perhaps several
custom-set-variables entry in it?

Also the normal information in the bug report is missing (date you did
a check out from the CVS repositories beeing the most important). Can
you tell us that?

Message #22 received at 1246-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
To: 1246-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#1246: Bug : 23.0.60;
	"customize emacs" overwrites "custom-set-variables" in .emacs
Date: Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:09:03 -0400

This absolutely isn't supposed to happen. The whole purpose of customize
would be defeated and there would be lots of bug reports.
But since there aren't lots of these reports, I'm afraid the problem
must have been something peculiar to your settings somehow.
(Random guess: maybe you had multiple custom-set-variables sections - as
it says there must be only one.)

Without a reproducible recipe showing us how you got into this state,
I'm afraid there is nothing we can do.

If you have such info, please reply and we can reopen this report.

You can view the whole report at http://debbugs.gnu.org/BUGNUMBER

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