Subject: Re: bug#7445: 23.2; weird customization behavior

From: martin rudalics <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2010 10:18:21 +0100

> If I do `M-x customize-group tramp' (even after starting with -Q), I see:
 >
 >   tramp-default-method-alist: Hide Value '(("\\`localhost\\'" "\\`root\\'" "su"))
 >      State: CHANGED outside Customize; operating on it here may be unreliable. (mismatch)
 >
 > Several things are wrong here:
 >
 > * I see the regular variable name instead of capitalized words space
 >   separated
 >
 > * The structure of the variable doesn't seem to be known to customize
 >   -- I don't get a nice editor

These are normal.  When something goes wrong, options show up this way
because the customization interface doesn't see a nice way to format and
edit them reliably.

 > * It *wasn't* changed, at least not by me, outside of Customize
 >
 > I managed, once, in an emacs started without -Q, to get
 >
 >   `M-x customize-variable tramp-default-method-alist'
 >
 > To show me the structure of the variable, but I can't reproduce this.
 > It still tells me falsely that it is "CHANGED outside Customize;
 > operating on it here may be unreliable."

Call `customize-rogue' for a list of options where customizing fails the
same way with emacs -Q.  It's a nasty habit of programmers to ignore the
customization interface.

martin