Subject: 24.4.50; When editing externally changed file, Emacs asks too many questions

From: David Kastrup <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 09:44:11 +0200

When editing an externally changed file (under version control, no idea
whether that is related), I get the following questions (see below in
the input and output section).

It does not make sense at all for Emacs to ask

smob-convert.sh changed on disk; really edit the buffer? (y, n, r or C-h) y

as a reply to me typing C-x C-s since C-x C-s is _not_ a request to edit
the buffer.  It is a request to save the file _after_ editing the
buffer, and I already discussed the consequences of editing and saving
with Emacs previously.

Apart from being annoying by asking me the same question several times,
the question does not even make any sense the second time round.
I never know whether Emacs requires me to answer this quite nonsensical
question with "y" or "n" in order to write the changed buffer, and what
will happen in either of the two cases of answering this no longer
applicable question.

In GNU Emacs 24.4.50.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.10.8)
 of 2014-07-28 on lola
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11501000
System Description:	Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS

Configured using:
 `configure --without-toolkit-scroll-bars'

Configured features:
XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG IMAGEMAGICK SOUND GPM DBUS GCONF GSETTINGS
NOTIFY LIBSELINUX GNUTLS LIBXML2 FREETYPE M17N_FLT LIBOTF XFT ZLIB

Important settings:
  value of $LC_MONETARY: en_US.UTF-8
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: en_US.UTF-8
  value of $LC_TIME: en_US.UTF-8
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=ibus
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: Shell-script

Minor modes in effect:
  sh-electric-here-document-mode: t
  shell-dirtrack-mode: t
  diff-auto-refine-mode: t
  TeX-PDF-mode: t
  desktop-save-mode: t
  minibuffer-electric-default-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  electric-indent-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t

Recent input:
<down> C-x r t # SPC <return> y <backspace> <backspace> 
C-x C-s y e s <return> y

Recent messages:
smob-convert.sh changed on disk; really edit the buffer? (y, n, r or C-h) y
File on disk now will become a backup file if you save these changes.
Saving file /usr/local/tmp/lilypond/scripts/auxiliar/smob-convert.sh...
smob-convert.sh changed on disk; really edit the buffer? (y, n, r or C-h) y
File on disk now will become a backup file if you save these changes.
Wrote /usr/local/tmp/lilypond/scripts/auxiliar/smob-convert.sh

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow emacsbug org-element org-rmail org-mhe org-irc org-info org-gnus
org-docview doc-view image-mode org-bibtex bibtex org-bbdb org-w3m org
org-macro org-footnote org-pcomplete org-list org-faces org-entities
org-version ob-emacs-lisp ob ob-tangle org-src ob-ref ob-lob ob-table
ob-keys ob-exp ob-comint ob-core ob-eval org-compat org-macs
org-loaddefs cal-menu calendar cal-loaddefs nroff-mode ediff-merg
ediff-wind ediff-diff ediff-mult ediff-help ediff-init ediff-util ediff
skeleton diff texmathp reftex-parse deuglify talk ffap vc-bzr vc-sccs
vc-svn vc-cvs vc-rcs gnus-topic canlock sh-script smie executable rect
url-util url-parse url-vars calc-alg calc-ext calc-menu calc
calc-loaddefs calc-macs shr-color color sendmail nnir shell pcomplete
imenu view woman man gnus-fun debug smerge-mode vc vc-dispatcher shr
gnus-dup eieio-opt speedbar sb-image ezimage dframe find-func dabbrev
browse-url flyspell ispell git-commit-mode log-edit pcvs-util add-log
misearch multi-isearch help-mode git-rebase-mode thingatpt diff-mode
gnus-kill qp mule-util sort smiley gnus-cite flow-fill mm-archive
mail-extr gnus-async gnus-bcklg gnus-ml disp-table pop3 nndir nndraft
nnmh gnutls network-stream auth-source eieio eieio-core starttls nnml
nnfolder nnnil gnus-agent gnus-srvr gnus-score score-mode nnvirtual
gnus-msg gnus-art mm-uu mml2015 epg-config mm-view mml-smime smime
password-cache dig mailcap nntp gnus-cache gnus-sum gnus-group gnus-undo
gnus-start gnus-cloud nnimap nnmail mail-source tls utf7 netrc nnoo
parse-time gnus-spec gnus-int gnus-range gnus-win jka-compr autorevert
filenotify latexenc preview prv-emacs tex-bar toolbar-x noutline outline
font-latex byte-opt bytecomp byte-compile cconv latex easy-mmode edmacro
kmacro tex-style reftex-dcr reftex-auc reftex reftex-vars tex-buf
tex-info texinfo tex dbus xml crm python json message dired-x dired
format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse
rfc2231 rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader
scheme lilypond-mode compile comint ansi-color ring vc-git cc-langs
cc-mode cc-fonts cc-guess cc-menus cc-cmds cc-styles cc-align cc-engine
cc-vars cc-defs info easymenu package advice desktop frameset
minibuf-eldef gnus gnus-ems nnheader gnus-util mail-utils mm-util
help-fns mail-prsvr wid-edit cl-loaddefs cl-lib cus-start cus-load
preview-latex tex-site auto-loads server time-date tooltip electric
uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel x-win x-dnd tool-bar
dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment lisp-mode
prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar
mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian
utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean
japanese hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian
cyrillic chinese case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev
minibuffer nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files
text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule
custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process
dbusbind gfilenotify dynamic-setting system-font-setting
font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit x multi-tty emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 8 936702 107452)
 (symbols 24 62111 274)
 (miscs 20 1517 5186)
 (strings 16 173785 25925)
 (string-bytes 1 4819519)
 (vectors 8 55012)
 (vector-slots 4 1881617 31930)
 (floats 8 524 1344)
 (intervals 28 65318 2112)
 (buffers 512 230)
 (heap 1024 73167 13542))

-- 
David Kastrup