Subject: Re: bug#64311: [PATCH] Fix shell-dirtrack-mode showing up as enabled in unrelated buffers

From: Vladimir Sedach <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2023 13:24:58 -0600

Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:

> Am I?  Asking about the root cause of the problem is not wrong,
> because it indicates how best to fix it.

The root cause of the problem is the redundant variable
shell-dirtrackp, not its value. It is the variable aliasing in the
2018 commit 9c3eeba4db26ddaeead100beea7a96f9fa640918 that introduced
the bug.

This is why my patch addresses the root cause of the problem, instead
of setting the value of the variable (which commit
9c3eeba4db26ddaeead100beea7a96f9fa640918 did not touch).

> Why would we bother about that?  With the exception of the default
> value, what harm does that variable cause by existing?

It is misleading for someone trying to customize shell-mode, or work
on shell.el. I found it confusing on both counts. If it were not
confusing for you too, we obviously would not be having such a long
back-and-forth conversation about this bug.

--
Vladimir Sedach