Re: Allow #+SETUPFILE to point to an URL for the org file

[Nicolas Goaziou <mail@nicolasgoaziou.fr>]

Kaushal Modi <kaushal.modi@gmail.com> writes:

> Hmm, is there a way to read a file from a URL to a variable directly? Or
> did you mean to download the file first, read that into a temp buffer and
> then delete the temp file?

You can use something like `url-insert' and `url-retrieve' or
`url-retrieve-synchronously'.

> This proposal was for the case where we have
>
> #+SETUPFILE: http://foo.bar/config.org
>
> So it cannot be local to begin with.

Sure, but SETUPFILE still accepts local file names. So I was pointing
out that you need to check if the URL is a local file name before
proceeding. In particular, this check needs to happen when using "C-c '"
(which may display URL contents in a read-only buffer, BTW).

> With respect to the point about not having the file in temp, we can have a
> flag that if set, will prevent re-downloading of the file. User can choose
> to reset that flag and then re-download that file. This will be lieu of the
> earlier condition "(2) that temp file does not exist."

Is it necessary? File contents could be stored in, e.g., a hash table,
url being the key. The file is downloaded only if the entry doesn't
exist in the table and the user didn't force download.-

> I would like to work on this. But I will be away from my computer for about
> a month starting tomorrow. Will get back to this once I am back from my
> vacation.

Great. Thank you.

Regards,