Re: Emacs 21.1: indirect buffers don't work properly with *info*

[Stefan Monnier]

>>>>> "Alan" == Alan Mackenzie <none@example.invalid> writes:
> What is actually going on here?  A command in one window fouling up a
> different window seems a bit strange.

No, it's the whole point of an indirect buffer.  An indirect buffer
is just like a normal buffer, except that its text is shared with
another buffer, so that when you modify the text of either of the two,
the other one is also modified.

This is used for things like outline-minor-mode so you can have
2 simultaneous "views" over the same file, where the hide/show status
is different for each "view".

In *info*, when you jump from one node to the next, the buffer's text
gets (sometimes) modified, so it will screw up any indirect-buffer
that didn't expect it.  That's why the narrowing disappears:
In *info*<1> the `up' does "erase buffer, insert content from
other file, narrow to node".  The first two steps are also applied
to the indirect-buffer.

> A couple of times when I tried this sort of thing with my .emacs loaded,
> emacs crashed completely, but I don't seem to be able to reproduce this
> any more.

That is a real bug.  Please try to reproduce it and send a precise
bug-report.

> I think I've misunderstood what indirect buffers are about.  I would like
> to have two info buffers, one pointing, say, into the Emacs manual, the
> other into the Elisp manual.  Then I could switch back and forth quickly
> between two (or several) places in the info hierarchy.

You can use `clone-buffer' for that (or `rename-uniquely' followed
by M-x info which is not as good, but already worked in Emacs-20).


        Stefan