Subject: bug#13583: 24.3.50; Error when activating auto-revert-mode

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:35:46 +0200

> Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:18:58 +0100
> From: Dani Moncayo <[email-masked]>
> Cc: [email-masked]
> 
> >> I try to avoid the customize facility as much as I can, because it
> >> doesn't allow to set values based on conditions like the system-type,
> >> for example.
> >
> > Doesn't custom-set-variables work inside an "if" clause?  If it does,
> > then what's the problem of using it only on some systems?
> 
> The problem with that approach is that, if I do some other
> customization and save it

??? You just said that you "try to avoid the customize facility", so
why in the world would you want to save your customizations??

Instead of saving them, use the custom-set-variables function to do
what you want, when you want.

> the custom facility writes _all_ current unsaved customization to
> the custom file, therefore the customization of
> `auto-revert-use-notify' would end up in the custom file, which is
> not what I want, obviously.

This is a misunderstanding, surely: custom-set-variables does not save
anything.  It arranges for the variable to be customized, as if you
used the Customize user interface.  So I don't understand how "unsaved
customizations" and "custom file" come into play here.  Could you
perhaps give more details about the workflow which brings you to those
issues, including the commands you use?

> A workaround is to fool the customize facility by marking the relevant
> customizations as "saved" just after the call to custom-set-variables,
> but that is an ugly hack, IMO.

Why would you need to save any customizations at all?  If you want to
customize yet another variable, add yet another custom-set-variables
form to your .emacs, that's all.  What am I missing?