Subject: Re: bug#46935: 28.0.50; Annoying interactions with X clipboard

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 06 Mar 2021 13:33:53 +0100

Michael Heerdegen <[email-masked]> writes:

> I wonder if Emacs, like Firefox, also does not hang indefinitely when it
> happens?  I didn't have that impression, but as I said, I can't test
> ATM.

No, Emacs hangs forever -- that is, until you hit `C-g'.

We could add a timeout for this...  but yanking data can take an
arbitrary amount of time, so I'm not sure we want to go in that
direction, either.  For instance, if the process we're yanking from is
busy doing something else for a couple of seconds, we will get the data
after it stops being busy, and a timeout that's longer than a couple of
seconds isn't very useful anyway.

So I think the current design -- just wait indefinitely, or until the
user says `C-g' -- is probably the correct one.  Any opinions?

In the default Emacs settings, you're only affected when actually trying
to paste something from other programs, but if you have a package/use
settings that make Emacs interact with the clipboard/primary selection
all the time (which it sounds like you have?), then the problem is
exacerbated, of course.

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