Subject: Re: bug#18336: 24.4.50; When editing externally changed file, Emacs asks too many questions

From: Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 01 Mar 2020 01:27:34 +0100

David Kastrup <[email-masked]> writes:

> 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.

Thanks for the report.  Unfortunately, it didn't get a reply at the
time.

Maybe something has changed since you reported this, because I'm
seeing the following messages:

    (New file)
    Saving file /tmp/foo.txt...
    Wrote /tmp/foo.txt
    foo.txt 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 /tmp/foo.txt...
    foo.txt has changed since visited or saved.  Save anyway? (y or n) y

This makes a lot of sense to me.  The prompts are really about two
different things, which seems to now be fully clear.

Given the above, I don't see any need to do any further changes here.
I'll close this bug in a couple of weeks unless there is more to
discuss.

Best regards,
Stefan Kangas