Re: safe way to add contents to a file ?

[Óscar Fuentes]

Jean-Christophe Helary <jean.christophe.helary@traduction-libre.org>
writes:

> Here is my latest version...
>
>
> (defun myInsert4 (myText myMarker myFile)
>   (save-current-buffer
>     (set-buffer (find-file-noselect myFile))
>     (goto-char (point-min))
>     (if (not (search-forward myMarker nil t))
>       (progn
>         (user-error (format "%s was not found" myMarker))
>         (kill-buffer))
>       (progn
>       (goto-char (point-min))
>       (goto-char (- (search-forward myMarker) (length myMarker)))
>       (insert myText)
>       (indent-region (point-min) (point-max))
>       (save-buffer)))
>     (kill-buffer)))
>
> Really not sure if I'm going in the right direction. Plus, for some
> reason, the buffer is not killed even after an error...

`user-error' (which is a variant of `error') stops the execution, so
`kill-buffer' is never executed. Either put `kill-buffer' before
`user-error' or do not use `user-error', like this:

(defun myInsert4 (myText myMarker myFile)
  (save-current-buffer (find-file-noselect myFile))
    (goto-char (point-min))
    (if (not (search-forward myMarker nil t))
        (message "%s was not found" myMarker)
      (progn
        (goto-char (point-min))
        (goto-char (- (search-forward myMarker) (length myMarker)))
        (insert myText)
        (indent-region (point-min) (point-max))
        (save-buffer)))
    (kill-buffer))

You can also cache the result of `search-forward', thus avoiding
repeating it:

(defun myInsert4 (myText myMarker myFile)
  (save-current-buffer (find-file-noselect myFile))
    (goto-char (point-min))
    (setq p (search-forward myMarker nil t))
    (if (not p)
        (message "%s was not found" myMarker)
      (progn
        (goto-char (- p (length myMarker)))
        (insert myText)
        (indent-region (point-min) (point-max))
        (save-buffer)))
    (kill-buffer))

A `let' would be nicer than a `setq'. Fixing that is left as an exercise
for the reader.