Subject: bug#79293: [PATCH] Pass dired default filenames via defaults argument

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2025 17:52:53 +0300

> Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked]
> Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2025 17:44:41 +0300
> From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
> 
> > From: Spencer Baugh <[email-masked]>
> > Cc: [email-masked],  [email-masked]
> > Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2025 10:40:17 -0400
> > 
> > Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:
> > >> Cc: Juri Linkov <[email-masked]>
> > >> Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2025 17:20:13 -0400
> > >> From:  Spencer Baugh via "Bug reports for GNU Emacs,
> > >>  the Swiss army knife of text editors" <[email-masked]>
> > >> 
> > >> Rather than using minibuffer-with-setup-hook and
> > >> minibuffer-default-add-function, just pass the list of default
> > >> file names as a regular argument to read-file-name.  This
> > >> behaves better with various customizations, and also allows the
> > >> normal abbreviate-file-name logic in read-file-name to run.
> > >
> > > "Behaves better" in what sense?
> > >
> > > Would you please show examples of commands where the patched version
> > > behaves better, including the effect of the abbreviate-file-name
> > > logic?  Because from your OP it is unclear to me what, if any, will be
> > > the user-facing effects of the new behavior in the relevant Dired
> > > commands.
> > 
> > Both before and after my change:
> > 
> > 1. M-: (read-file-name ":" nil (expand-file-name "~"))
> > 2. M-n
> > 3. Observe ~/ in the minibuffer
> > 
> > This is because read-file-name calls abbreviate-file-name on the default
> > argument.
> > 
> > Before my change:
> > 
> > 1. C-x C-f ~/
> > 2. R (or Y or H)
> > 3. M-n
> > 4. Observe the minibuffer starts with /home/user
> > 
> > After my change:
> > 
> > 1. C-x C-f ~/
> > 2. R (or Y or H)
> > 3. M-n
> > 4. Observe the minibuffer starts with ~/ as usual for read-file-name
> 
> So abbreviate-file-name is the only improvement provided by your
> patch?  Your OP seemed to imply that there were others:

Btw, I don't quite follow your recipes.  What does R (or Y or H) do in
this sequence:

> 1. C-x C-f ~/
> 2. R (or Y or H)
> 3. M-n
> 4. Observe the minibuffer starts with /home/user

In my case these are self-inserting characters, so after step 2 I have
"Find file: ~/R" in the minibuffer.  And then M-n signals an error.
is something missing from the recipe?

Btw, in my case, this recipe:

> 1. M-: (read-file-name ":" nil (expand-file-name "~"))
> 2. M-n
> 3. Observe ~/ in the minibuffer

produces "~" in the minibuffer, not "~/".  Again, is something missing
from the recipe?