Subject: Re: bug#18125: file-precious-flag breaks symlinks

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 04 Dec 2020 12:40:19 +0100

Glenn Morris <[email-masked]> writes:

> touch foo
> ln -s foo bar
> emacs-24.3.92  -Q --eval '(setq file-precious-flag t)' bar
> change bar and save
>    -> bar is no longer a symlink
>
> AFAICS, it has always (since at least 22.3) been like this.
> Does it have to be, though? Why can't it overwrite the target of the link?

This behaviour is still present in Emacs 28.

> In any case, the doc only mentions breaking hardlinks.
>
> Setting find-file-visit-truename non-nil avoids the problem.

I'm not sure whether this is a bug or whether it makes sense.  I'm
leaning towards...  bug?  Perhaps?  Anybody got an opinion here?

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no