Re: password shows on emacs as a shell

[Karl Eichwalder]

@product        : SuSELinux
@version        : 8.2-pre
@component      : documentation
@short_desc     : add notes on Emacs customization
@assigned_to    : ke@suse.de
@rep_platform   : All
@bug_severity   : enhancement
@priority       : P3
@groupset       : ReadWorld
@op_sys         : Linux


Eric Marsden <emarsden@laas.fr> writes:

>   ke> On SuSE Linux ~/.emacs loads ~/.gnu-emacs; thus please edit
>   ke> ~/.gnu-emacs if you want to add own customizations.
>
>   jh> Do you know why?

Short answer: for historical reasons.  .emacs will also load
.xemacs/init.el when appropriate.

>   jh> It seems like a somewhat stu^Hrange decision. It makes it much
>   jh> more cumbersome to give people advice here -- especially if
>   jh> other distributors get "creative" too and all them make up
>   jh> gratuitous names for '~/.emacs'.

Yes.  Of course, advantageous users can comment out the .gnu-emacs
loading part and start from scratch.  Long anser see below.

> I agree; this is very unfortunate packaging on the part of SuSE. They
> ignore the standard site-init facility, putting all their
> customizations in each user's personal init file. Their customizations
> are extensive, intrusive, undocumented, and in certain cases
> misguided.

Strong words, but let me try to explain it (hope I'll get the details
right; I don't maintain the Emacs package on SuSE Linux).  Some years
ago (6, 7 years or so), customizations where necessary for european
users.  Those settings were added to /etc/skel/.{,gnu-}emacs.  I was
told it isn't possible to change it easily because old user are used to
it and you must honor their way to use Emacs.

These days a new user should feel free to start without customization.
I'll add some notes to the manual (bugzilla entry via CC).

-- 
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