Re: address@hidden: Re: comint's directory tracking doesn't understand \( or \)]

[Chris Moore]

On 3/4/07, Chong Yidong <address@hidden> wrote:

> BTW, I can't seem to reproduce the problem referenced in the original
> bug report.
> /tmp/(2007) $ pwd
>  => /tmp/(2007)

The bug I was reporting is that the buffer's directory doesn't change
correctly.  I realise that the inferior subprocess' working directory
changes correctly, but comint attempts to track the shell's directory.
That way, you can hit C-x C-f and have it default to the directory
you are currently 'cd'ed to.

For years I used and loved "J Shell"
http://download.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.gnu.org/gnu/elisp-archive/modes/J-Shell-2.1.tar.Z
it almost never gets out of sync with the shell's working directory,
because it redefines the 'cd' (and 'pushd', 'popd', 'rlogin', etc)
commands to echo some special control characters to the shell mode
telling it each time the working directory changes.  It would even
arrange for the shell buffer's working directory to become
/address@hidden:/path/file when the user logged on to a remote machine
inside the shell buffer.

It's unfortunate that the default Emacs M-x shell mode is so flaky in
this regard.  Even something as simple as "cd $PROJECT" confuses it.