GNU bug report logs - #33400
26.1; Order changed for overriding “nil” mode in dir-locals

Previous Next

Full log

Message #31 received at 33400 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Michael Albinus <michael.albinus <at> gmx.de>
To: Noam Postavsky <npostavs <at> gmail.com>
Cc: Neil Roberts <bpeeluk <at> yahoo.co.uk>, 33400 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#33400: [PATCH] Let dir locals for more specific modes
 override those from less
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2019 14:58:34 +0200

Noam Postavsky <npostavs <at> gmail.com> writes:

>> The list of dir local variables to apply is now sorted by the number
>> of parent modes of the mode used as the key in the association
>> list. That way when the variables are applied in order the variables
>> from more specific modes will override those from less specific modes.
>>
>> If there are directory entries in the list then they are sorted in
>> order of name length. The list of modes for that dir is then
>> recursively sorted with the same mechanism. That way variables tied to
>> a particular subdirectory override those in in a parent directory.
>>
>> Previously the behaviour didn’t seem to be well defined anyway and was
>> dependent on the order they appeared in the file. However this order
>> was changed in version 26.1 and it probably also depended on the
>> number of dir-local files that are merged.
>
> This patch looks basically good to me (some minor formatting: sentences
> should end in double space, and the commit message misses a ChangeLog
> formatted entry), but it exceeds to copyright exemption limit.  Would
> you be willing to sign papers?

I also believe the patch is worth to be applied, to the emacs-26
branch. It fixes a regression introduced with Emacs 26.1.

I'd appreciate if this behavior, priority of .dir-locals entries, is
documented in the Emacs manual. Could this be added to the patch?

Thanks, and best regards, Michael.

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.