Re: call-process in scratch buffer with non-existent default-directory

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Roland Winkler <Roland.Winkler@physik.uni-erlangen.de>
> Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 13:30:35 +0200
> 
> Signaling: (file-error "Setting current directory" "no such file or 
> directory" "/nfs/home/winkler/scratch/")
>   call-process("lynx" nil t nil "-dump" "http://dict.leo.org/?search=We";)
> 
> I am not perfectly sure whether I correctly figured out the details
> of this problem. However, in any case I would expect that under
> these circumstances call-process should not signal a file-error.

call-process _must_ have a valid default-directory, because it makes
the child process start in that directory.  Emacs must start the child
process from the buffer's default-directory, because that's what users
expect: where else would you expect the child process to start?  It
cannot just pick any random directory, because that would surprise
users.

It's possible that Emacs should prompt the user to supply a directory,
in case the one recorded in the buffer somehow disappeared from under
our feet.  Otherwise, I cannot imagine any automatic way out of this
situation.