Re: Use .emacs.d in savehist.el

[Chong Yidong]

>     If normal libraries follow init-file-user, you could have a situation
>     where a user tries to write customization files into the home
>     directory of another user.  This doesn't make much sense, but I don't
>     understand when it makes sense to set init-file-user in the first
>     place.
>
> If the customized values that Emacs read _came from_ another user's
> init file, the only place to store them back is into that user's init
> file.
>
> Ordinarily you won't be able to write that file.  Instead you will get
> a clear error message saying so.  That seems correct to me.
>
> Meanwhile, in at least one case you WILL be able to write that file.
> Namely, when you are root and you told Emacs to use your own personal
> init file.  (In particular, this is what happens when you run emacs
> under su.)

When you are root, creating a file or directory in another user's home
directory is problematic.  The file will be owned by root, and the
user won't be able to write to it.

I looked into the possibility of making Miles' "find customization
file" function do a chown and chgrp on the customization file, so that
this problem won't arise.  But Emacs doesn't have any built-in chown
or chgrp.  Dired can do it, but it's by calling an external program.