GNU bug report logs - #78952
Bug or feature? intern-soft return non-exists symbol

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Package: emacs;

Reported by: Lin Sun <sunlin7 <at> hotmail.com>

Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2025 04:28:03 UTC

Severity: normal

Tags: notabug

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

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Report forwarded to bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org:
bug#78952; Package emacs. (Fri, 04 Jul 2025 04:28:03 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.
Acknowledgement sent to Lin Sun <sunlin7 <at> hotmail.com>:
New bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org. (Fri, 04 Jul 2025 04:28:04 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

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

From: Lin Sun <sunlin7 <at> hotmail.com>
To: "bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org" <bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org>
Subject: Bug or feature? intern-soft return non-exists symbol
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2025 04:22:38 +0000

Hi, get confused intern-soft return a symbol which already unbound, 

Here are the lines to make a symbol then makunbound the symbol, but after that the intern-soft still return the symbol:

(setq a-test-variable-unbound-later t)

(intern-soft "a-test-variable-unbound-later")

(makunbound 'a-test-variable-unbound-later)

(boundp 'a-test-variable-unbound-later)

(intern-soft "a-test-variable-unbound-later") ;; why not nil?

It's a feature or a bug? Thanks
Information forwarded to bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org:
bug#78952; Package emacs. (Fri, 04 Jul 2025 07:37:04 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #8 received at 78952 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Lin Sun <sunlin7 <at> hotmail.com>
Cc: 78952 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78952: Bug or feature? intern-soft return non-exists symbol
Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2025 10:36:27 +0300

tags 78952 notabug
thanks

> From: Lin Sun <sunlin7 <at> hotmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2025 04:22:38 +0000
> msip_labels: 
> 
> Hi, get confused intern-soft return a symbol which already unbound, 
> 
> Here are the lines to make a symbol then makunbound the symbol, but after that the intern-soft still return the symbol:
> 
> (setq a-test-variable-unbound-later t)
> 
> (intern-soft "a-test-variable-unbound-later")
> 
> (makunbound 'a-test-variable-unbound-later)
> 
> (boundp 'a-test-variable-unbound-later)
> 
> (intern-soft "a-test-variable-unbound-later") ;; why not nil?
> 
> It's a feature or a bug? Thanks

makunbound doesn't remove the symbol from obarray.  Use unintern to
remove it.

This is not a bug.
Added tag(s) notabug. Request was from Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> to control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Fri, 04 Jul 2025 07:37:06 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.
Information forwarded to bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org:
bug#78952; Package emacs. (Fri, 04 Jul 2025 12:21:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #13 received at 78952 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lin Sun <sunlin7 <at> hotmail.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 78952 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78952: Bug or feature? intern-soft return non-exists symbol
Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2025 05:20:05 -0700

[Message part 1 (text/html, inline)]
Reply sent to Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>:
You have taken responsibility. (Fri, 04 Jul 2025 13:35:04 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.
Notification sent to Lin Sun <sunlin7 <at> hotmail.com>:
bug acknowledged by developer. (Fri, 04 Jul 2025 13:35:04 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #18 received at 78952-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Lin Sun <sunlin7 <at> hotmail.com>
Cc: 78952-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78952: Bug or feature? intern-soft return non-exists symbol
Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2025 16:34:18 +0300

> Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2025 05:20:05 -0700
> From: Lin Sun <sunlin7 <at> hotmail.com>
> Cc: 78952 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> Thank you for comments, I use the intern-soft to detect symbols existing for package but found it's failed
> even I unbound the variables. :) 

If you want to know whether a symbol is bound as a variable use
'foundp', not 'intern-soft'.

> Please feel free to close the ticket, thank you!

Done.
Information forwarded to bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org:
bug#78952; Package emacs. (Fri, 04 Jul 2025 14:09:01 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #21 received at 78952 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: 78952 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Cc: sunlin7 <at> hotmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#78952: Bug or feature? intern-soft return non-exists symbol
Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2025 17:08:39 +0300

> Resent-To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
> Cc: 78952-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2025 16:34:18 +0300
> From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
> 
> > Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2025 05:20:05 -0700
> > From: Lin Sun <sunlin7 <at> hotmail.com>
> > Cc: 78952 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> > 
> > Thank you for comments, I use the intern-soft to detect symbols existing for package but found it's failed
> > even I unbound the variables. :) 
> 
> If you want to know whether a symbol is bound as a variable use
> 'foundp', not 'intern-soft'.
  ^^^^^^^^
Sorry, I meant 'boundp', of course.
bug archived. Request was from Debbugs Internal Request <help-debbugs <at> gnu.org> to internal_control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Sat, 02 Aug 2025 11:24:09 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.
This bug report was last modified 42 days ago.

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