Re: symlink in itmiimer

[Richard Kettlewell <richard@elmail.co.uk>]

cc'd to debian-devel in case anyone knows that emacs has changed since
19.29-1.

Erick Branderhorst writes:
>Hi Richard Kettlewell <richard@elmail.co.uk>,
>
>I was browsing through the itimer.postinst and found a
>followlink("/usr/lib/emacs/site-lisp/site-start.el"), shouldn't this
>be followlink("/etc/site-start.el")?
>
>Erick
>
>#!/usr/bin/perl
>#
># This is the postinst script for the Debian itimer package
>#
># 1995-08-10 Richard Kettlewell <richard@elmail.co.uk>
>#
>
>$sitestart = &followlink("/usr/lib/emacs/site-lisp/site-start.el");
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>

Err, why?

Since Emacs searches for its site-start.el file by reading
/usr/lib/emacs/site-lisp/site-start.el rather than the copy under
/etc, I think it's quite sensible for its symbiote software to do so
as well.

(I know Emacs 19.29-1 works this way because I just straced it.)

In particular, with my strategy, the itimer install breaks precisely
when Emacs breaks, and not otherwise (all things being equal); but
looking in different places mean the two pieces of software break
under different conditions.

-- 
Richard Kettlewell
http://www.elmail.co.uk/staff/richard/                    richard@uk.geeks.org

Eat a live toad before breakfast and nothing worse will happen to you all day.