Subject: Re: bug#41572: 28.0.50; [PATCH] Support plain project marked with file .emacs-project

From: Dmitry Gutov <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2022 16:10:02 +0200

On 27/11/22 08:46, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> Sorry, no.  My basic question "how are these markers used?" is still
> unanswered.  You seem to assume that saying "in addition to regular
> directory markers such as .git, .hg" explains it, but it doesn't, because
> how the "regular directory markers" are used is still a mystery.  And the
> purpose of the markers according to the doc string, viz.:
> 
>     List of additional markers to signal project roots.
> 
> doesn't help enough, since "signal project roots" is too vague and abstract.

How about this, then? To borrow the phrasing from the very first patch 
in this bug:

   "List of additional markers to signal project roots.

A marker is either a base file name or a glob pattern for such.

A drectory containing such file or a file matching the pattern
will be recognized as a VC project.

Example values: \".dir-locals.el\", \"package.json\", \"pom.xml\",
\"requirements.txt\", \"Gemfile\", \"*.gemspec\", \"autogen.sh\".

These will be used in addition to regular directory markers such
as \".git\", \".hg\", and so on, depending on the value of
`vc-handled-backends'.  It is most useful when a VC project has
subdirectories inside it that need to be considered as separate
projects.  It can also be used for projects outside of VC
repositories.

In either case, their behavior will still obey the relevant
variables, such as `project-vc-ignores' or `project-vc-name'."