Re: installed 22.1-0ubuntu4~feisty1, should i remove /etc/emacs21/site-start.d

[Tim X]

Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa@Web.DE> writes:

> Am 31.08.2007 um 03:33 schrieb imputerate:
>
>> can i rely on emacs22 to:
>>
>> go to /etc/emacs22 and find 00debian-vars.elc,
>>
>> instead of:
>>
>> going to /etc/emacs21 and running 20gnus-init.el?
>

If emacs 22 is from a deb package, yes, you should be able to expect it
will find the correct init files. Folow Pete's suggestions to verify. 

> Launch it and then check the variable load-path – it won't destroy  your
> system. If load-path contains /etc/emacs21 and the GNU Emacs 21  files are
> different from those of version 22, then it's probably  better to send a
> message to the Ubuntu company and to debian, since  one such file is named
> 00debian-vars.elc. The other file is *not* a  part of GNU Emacs.
>
> Using a statement like this one
>
>       (defadvice load (before debug-log activate)
>         (message "(Tipp von Kai G) Lade jetzt: %s" (ad-get-arg 0)))
>
> in the system init file can make GNU Emacs to show all files it has  loaded
> afterwards.
>
>
> Anyway, it seems that Ubuntu linux is buggy when it can't remove what  it
> has installed before. A bug report seems to be recommended.
>

This may not be a bug. I'm assuming that ubuntu follows the Debian policy
(I run Debian and have never run ubuntu). One of the nice things about the
Debian approach is that you can have multiple versions of emacs installed
at the same time. I currently have deb packages for emacs 21 and emacs 22
and a recent emacs CVS snampshot of 22.1.50.1. 

Debian modifies the startup.el file that is part of Emacs and adds a
defconstant called debian-emacs-flavor - all .deb emacs packages should set
this to an appropriate value (i.e. emacs21 or emacs22 or even emacs20). The
startup.el file is also modified to load the /etc/emacs/site-start.d and
/etc/<debian-emacs-flavor>/site-start.d directories (and I think similarly
named ones of /usr/local) as well as setup the paths for the compiled
versions (one of the nice things about the debian setup is that it keeps
different trees of byte compiled elisp according to the version of emacs
they were compiled with).

so, the first thing I'd check is see what value debian-emacs-flavor is set
to. If it is emacs22, then I think you will find things work fine. If you
have built emacs 22 from sources, you need to modify the startup.el file to
add the debian stuff and then re-build. 

Note also that generally, the debian package system will not remove a
directory it has created if either additonal files have been added that
were not added by a package or if the files have been modified. Generally,
apt will give a warning about this, but it can easily be missed. Also, keep
in mind that Debian has two levels of package removal. If you just remove a
package, it will usually leave the config files in place (theory being you
may add the package back in the future). To completely remove the package
and all config files, you need to do a 'purge' in addition to a remove. 

HTH

Tim


-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au