GNU bug report logs - #78904
30.1; in a long directory pathname, "Cannot write backup file" is output with a spurious blank line

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Package: emacs;

Reported by: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>

Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2025 08:47:02 UTC

Severity: normal

Tags: notabug

Found in version 30.1

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

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Message #8 received at 78904 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
Cc: 78904 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78904: 30.1;
 in a long directory pathname, "Cannot write backup file" is output
 with a spurious blank line
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2025 12:22:11 +0300
tags 78904 notabug
thanks

> From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent <at> vinc17.net>
> Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2025 10:45:42 +0200
> 
> 
> 1. mkdir a-very-very-very-very-very-very-long-directory-pathname
> 2. cd a-very-very-very-very-very-very-long-directory-pathname
> 3. touch foo
> 4. emacs -Q --eval '(defun find-backup-file-name (fn) (list "/"))' foo
> 5. Modify the buffer.
> 6. Save with C-x C-s
> 
> The following is output:
> 
> Cannot write backup file; backing up in ~/.emacs.d/%backup%~
> 
> but with a spurious blank line below, i.e. the echo area takes 2 lines
> instead of a single one.

If you switch to the *Messages* buffer, do you see there a message
like this:

  Saving file /home/vinc17/a-very-very-very-very-very-very-long-directory-pathname

?  If so, this is the long message, shown before the "Cannot write
backup file", and it causes the mini-window to resize to 2 screen
lines instead of just 1.  This resize remains in effect for the
following echo-area messages, to avoid the annoying back-and-forth
jumps of the mode line.  If you don't like this behavior, customize
the option resize-mini-windows to the value t (and see its doc string
for more details about this feature).

This behavior is intended, not a bug.




This bug report was last modified today.

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