GNU bug report logs - #79124
emacs -Q doesn't give me a clean slate

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From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: rpluim <at> gmail.com, 79124 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, rms <at> gnu.org
Subject: bug#79124: emacs -Q doesn't give me a clean slate
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2025 09:50:42 -0700

On 2025-08-05 08:55, Eli Zaretskii wrote:

> If the only problem is the pain, then you did accept it as the
> workaround.

This mischaracterizes what I wrote. I wrote that it "is so awkward and 
unfriendly that I won't even bother". It is unreasonable to expect 
bug-reporters to rebuild Emacs from scratch in a tricky procedure, and I 
do not accept this as a workaround.

> Whatever can happen with the user's home directory can also happen
> with the files in the directories of the installation tree.

Also not correct in common situations where the installation files can 
be trusted where the home directory cannot. In most setups, installation 
files are readonly and set up by a trusted user, whereas the home 
directory is not.

> The *.eln
> files written into the user's eln-cache while compiling *.el files
> from the installation tree are for all practical purposes parts of the
> Emacs build, not parts of the user configuration.

Not if the files were corrupted after being written. And there are other 
reasons they might not be the same in practice.

> The files in ~/.emacs.d/eln-cache/ produced by compiling *.el files
> from the installation tree are part of the installed Emacs.

But that assumes that those files' contents are correct. An important 
part of testing is to check assumptions like that. Testing should not 
make unnecessary assumptions.

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