GNU bug report logs - #45197
Saving customizations makes ~/.config/emacs/init (no .el extension)

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: tsuucat <tsuucat <at> icloud.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: Saving customizations makes ~/.config/emacs/init (no .el extension)
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2020 03:10:22 +0900

Subject says all.

How to reproduce:
1. $ cd /tmp
2. $ mkdir -p test-home/.config/emacs
3. $ cd test-home
4. $ HOME=$PWD emacs
5. M-x customize, edit something and Save for Future Sessions.
=> Wrote /tmp/test-home/.config/emacs/init

init (not init.el) is created.
This is because user-init-file is set to “/tmp/test-home/.config/emacs/init”.

Emacs manual doesn’t refer ~/.config/emacs/init so I think this is not intended.

Changing
     (lambda ()
       (expand-file-name
        “init"
        startup-init-directory))
to
     (lambda ()
       (expand-file-name
        “init.el"
        startup-init-directory))
in startup.el
maybe solve this (like early-init.el)?

--
tsuucat

Message #8 received at 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: tsuucat <tsuucat <at> icloud.com>
Cc: 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#45197: Saving customizations makes ~/.config/emacs/init (no
 .el extension)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2020 18:11:49 +0100

tsuucat <tsuucat <at> icloud.com> writes:

> This is because user-init-file is set to “/tmp/test-home/.config/emacs/init”.

This was part of:

    Add early init file, stop package-initialize insertion
    
    Discussion on emacs-devel leading up to this change (approximately 150
    messages):
    
    - https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2017-08/msg00154.html
    - https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2017-08/msg00433.html
    - https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2017-09/msg00023.html
    - https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2017-09/msg00599.html
    - https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2017-10/msg00332.html

I did not read those 150 messages, and this code is uncommented in
startup.el:

     (lambda ()
       (expand-file-name
        "init"
        startup-init-directory))

Does anybody know whether this is just a typo?

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

Message #13 received at 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Robert Pluim <rpluim <at> gmail.com>
To: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
Cc: 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, tsuucat <tsuucat <at> icloud.com>
Subject: Re: bug#45197: Saving customizations makes ~/.config/emacs/init (no
 .el extension)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2020 18:23:39 +0100

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org> writes:

> tsuucat <tsuucat <at> icloud.com> writes:

> I did not read those 150 messages, and this code is uncommented in
> startup.el:
>
>      (lambda ()
>        (expand-file-name
>         "init"
>         startup-init-directory))
>
> Does anybody know whether this is just a typo?

Iʼm not sure it is. startup--load-user-init-file does this:

              (when (and (eq user-init-file t) alternate-filename-function)
                (let ((alt-file (funcall alternate-filename-function)))
                  (and (equal (file-name-extension alt-file) "el")
                       (setq alt-file (file-name-sans-extension alt-file)))
		  (unless init-file-name
		    (setq init-file-name alt-file))
                  (load alt-file 'noerror 'nomessage)))

which makes me wonder if itʼs trying to cater for people who compile
their init.el file, since this code doesnʼt actually probe the
filesystem, but presumably later we do (load init-file-name), which
will match .elc and .el suffixes.

Robert

Message #16 received at 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: tsuucat <tsuucat <at> icloud.com>
To: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
Cc: 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#45197: Saving customizations makes ~/.config/emacs/init (no
 .el extension)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2020 02:46:32 +0900

> I did not read those 150 messages, and this code is uncommented in
> startup.el:
> 
>     (lambda ()
>       (expand-file-name
>        "init"
>        startup-init-directory))


I found the explicit .el extension of "early-init.el” in startup.el is from
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/commit/?id=3d9a56f00040cbfc8fb92c4379344d7e91e2dff2.

--
tsuucat

Message #19 received at 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
Cc: 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, tsuucat <at> icloud.com
Subject: Re: bug#45197: Saving customizations makes ~/.config/emacs/init (no
 .el extension)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2020 19:52:56 +0200

> From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
> Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2020 18:11:49 +0100
> Cc: 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> I did not read those 150 messages, and this code is uncommented in
> startup.el:
> 
>      (lambda ()
>        (expand-file-name
>         "init"
>         startup-init-directory))
> 
> Does anybody know whether this is just a typo?

It isn't: the code later tries appending .el to the name.

Message #22 received at 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, tsuucat <at> icloud.com
Subject: Re: bug#45197: Saving customizations makes ~/.config/emacs/init (no
 .el extension)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2020 07:14:58 +0100

Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> writes:

>> I did not read those 150 messages, and this code is uncommented in
>> startup.el:
>> 
>>      (lambda ()
>>        (expand-file-name
>>         "init"
>>         startup-init-directory))
>> 
>> Does anybody know whether this is just a typo?
>
> It isn't: the code later tries appending .el to the name.

The code flow isn't trivial to follow here, but this is the code:

         (when (and (eq user-init-file t) alternate-filename-function)
                (let ((alt-file (funcall alternate-filename-function)))
                  (and (equal (file-name-extension alt-file) "el")
                       (setq alt-file (file-name-sans-extension alt-file)))
		  (unless init-file-name
		    (setq init-file-name alt-file))
                  (load alt-file 'noerror 'nomessage)))

              ;; If we did not find the user's init file, set
              ;; user-init-file conclusively.  Don't let it be
              ;; set from default.el.
              (when (eq user-init-file t)
                (setq user-init-file init-file-name)))

alternate-filename-function is the lambda up there, so it's
"/tmp/test-home/.config/emacs/init".  So this always sets user-init-file
to the .el-less file name.  (Well, it would have even if the alternate
file name had ended in ".el".)

That makes sense for making a file name for `load' (so that it'll load
the .elc file, if it exists), but setting `user-init-file' to that
.el-less name sounds like the problem here?

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

Message #25 received at 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
Cc: 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, tsuucat <at> icloud.com
Subject: Re: bug#45197: Saving customizations makes ~/.config/emacs/init (no
 .el extension)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2020 18:23:14 +0200

> From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
> Cc: tsuucat <at> icloud.com,  45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2020 07:14:58 +0100
> 
> alternate-filename-function is the lambda up there, so it's
> "/tmp/test-home/.config/emacs/init".  So this always sets user-init-file
> to the .el-less file name.  (Well, it would have even if the alternate
> file name had ended in ".el".)
> 
> That makes sense for making a file name for `load' (so that it'll load
> the .elc file, if it exists), but setting `user-init-file' to that
> .el-less name sounds like the problem here?

I'm not arguing against the fact that there's a bug, I'm just saying
that there's code which was supposed to handle this, and I think
that's where this should be fixed.

Message #28 received at 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: tsuucat <tsuucat <at> icloud.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>, 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#45197: Saving customizations makes ~/.config/emacs/init (no
 .el extension)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2020 10:47:59 +0900

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

		  (unless init-file-name
		    (setq init-file-name alt-file))
is added
in https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/commit/?id=4118297ae2fab4886b20d193ba511a229637aea3.

Before this commit, I think ‘.emacs’ is always used  for ‘user-init-file’ value if
init file is missing.

                 (and (equal (file-name-extension alt-file) "el")
                      (setq alt-file (file-name-sans-extension alt-file)))
...
                 (load alt-file 'noerror 'nomessage)))

should be also changed in the commit to use “init.el” not “init".


> 2020/12/16 1:23、Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>:
> 
>> From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
>> Cc: tsuucat <at> icloud.com,  45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
>> Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2020 07:14:58 +0100
>> 
>> alternate-filename-function is the lambda up there, so it's
>> "/tmp/test-home/.config/emacs/init".  So this always sets user-init-file
>> to the .el-less file name.  (Well, it would have even if the alternate
>> file name had ended in ".el".)
>> 
>> That makes sense for making a file name for `load' (so that it'll load
>> the .elc file, if it exists), but setting `user-init-file' to that
>> .el-less name sounds like the problem here?
> 
> I'm not arguing against the fact that there's a bug, I'm just saying
> that there's code which was supposed to handle this, and I think
> that's where this should be fixed.


I can’t find such a code.

I made a patch to set 'user-init-file' value to init”.el" for XDG convention users 
who do not have an init file.

(But alternate-filename-function is only used for "init.el” so 
                  ...(if (equal (file-name-extension alt-file)
				 "el")
			    (file-name-sans-extension alt-file)
                          alt-file)...
may be redundant.)

--
tsuucat

[0001-Fix-user-init-file-value-when-file-is-missing-in-XDG.patch (application/octet-stream, attachment)]

Message #31 received at 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: tsuucat <tsuucat <at> icloud.com>
Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>, 45197 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#45197: Saving customizations makes ~/.config/emacs/init (no
 .el extension)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2020 12:18:15 +0100

tsuucat <tsuucat <at> icloud.com> writes:

> 		  (unless init-file-name
> 		    (setq init-file-name alt-file))
> is added
> in https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/commit/?id=4118297ae2fab4886b20d193ba511a229637aea3.
>
> Before this commit, I think ‘.emacs’ is always used  for ‘user-init-file’ value if
> init file is missing.
>
>                  (and (equal (file-name-extension alt-file) "el")
>                       (setq alt-file (file-name-sans-extension alt-file)))
> ...
>                  (load alt-file 'noerror 'nomessage)))
>
> should be also changed in the commit to use “init.el” not “init".

Yes, I think the code here is just confused -- alt-file is "init" by
default, but since it's passed in as a closure, pretty much anything can
be returned, right?  The code does the right thing in stripping the
".el" before passing it to `load', because then `load' will load
init.elc if it exists.

But we can't add back ".el" before setting init-file-name, because the
alt-file may legitimately be ".emacs", and should not then be forced to
".emacs.el".

So I think the "init" in the alt-file closure is the problem: It should
be "init.el", and init-file-name should be set to that verbatim.  (But
the ".el" should still be stripped before doing the `load'.)

I think.  I've now done this change in Emacs 28, but I'm not
super-confident about it -- there's many subtleties here...

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

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