Re: file-name-shadow-mode

[Luc Teirlinck]

I am no longer sure that enabling `file-name-shadow-mode' by default
is really a good idea.  (_Not_ because it would be difficult: it could
easily be done using `custom-reevaluate-setting' in startup.el, even
without any changes to define-minor-mode.)

The problem is a comment in rfn-eshadow.el:

  ;; This is not really a correct implementation; it won't always do the
  ;; right thing in the presence of environment variables that
  ;; substitute-in-file-name would expand; currently it just assumes any
  ;; environment variable contains an absolute filename.

In other words, rfn-eshadow.el assumes that the value of _every_
environment variable is an absolute file name and it yields very
confusing results when other environment variables are used in file
names, say "/home/$USER".

Sincerely,

Luc.