[debbugs-tracker] bug#23050: closed (package.el overwrites symlinks when saving "(package-initialize)")

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Your message dated Sun, 22 May 2016 17:40:48 -0700
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and subject line Re: bug#23050: package.el overwrites symlinks when saving 
"(package-initialize)"
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #23050,
regarding package.el overwrites symlinks when saving "(package-initialize)"
to be marked as done.

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--- Begin Message --- Subject: package.el overwrites symlinks when saving "(package-initialize)" Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2016 23:53:30 -0700

Emacs version: 25.0.91.1

OS: Debian 8 GNU/Linux

When I create a symlink in my ~/.emacs.d directory to my init.el file at some other location, and the init file does not have "(package-initialize)" inside it, then when package.el adds the "(package-initialize)" line to my init file on startup, instead of updating the original file, it seems to make a copy of the symlinked file in the ~/.emacs.d directory. This is bad, because now (probably without my immediate knowledge), I now have two very similar init files, and editing the supposedly-symlinked one will do nothing.

I don't really like the idea of my init file being written-to without my consent in the first place. But anyway, Emacs should at least do me the courtesy of modifying the symlinked file, because that's clearly the only copy of the file I want to maintain.

--- End Message ---

--- Begin Message --- Subject: Re: bug#23050: package.el overwrites symlinks when saving "(package-initialize)" Date: Sun, 22 May 2016 17:40:48 -0700 User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.8.0

So package.el could avoid the issue by binding
find-file-visit-truename, like cus-edit does (see bug#454).

Thanks, that suggestion worked when I tried it, so I installed the attached patch into emacs-25 and am marking this bug as done.

0001-Do-not-trash-symlinks-to-init-file.txt
Description: Text document

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