Re: [PATCH] Silently remove lockfiles from org-agenda-files

[Joseph Turner <joseph@breatheoutbreathe.in>]

Hi Ihor,

Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@posteo.net> writes:

> Joseph Turner <joseph@breatheoutbreathe.in> writes:
>
>> My Emacs setup broke today due to the presence of a lockfile inside
>> "~/.local/share/org/todo".  I use EXWM, and I show org-agenda on startup:
>>
>> (add-hook 'after-init-hook
>>             (lambda () (org-agenda nil "t")))
>> (setq initial-buffer-choice (lambda () (get-buffer "*Org Agenda*")))
>>
>> org-agenda-files contained a non-existent file, so org-check-agenda-file
>> attempted to prompt me.  For some reason (maybe EXWM didn't fully load),
>> Emacs simply hung without prompting, leaving me with a black screen.
>
> You may consider reporting the hang to Emacs or EXWM bug tracker.

>> My configuration contains the equivalent of
>>
>> (setopt org-agenda-files
>>        (directory-files-recursively "~/.local/share/org/todo" ".org$"))
>
> I'd recommend using a different approach - use org-agenda-file-regexp
> instead of ".org$"; or use #'file-directory-p as predicate - Org mode
> then select Org files inside all the listed directories by itself.

Good to know about org-agenda-file-regexp.

>> The attached patch silently removes lockfiles from org-agenda-files.
>
>> -  "Make sure FILE exists.  If not, ask user what to do."
>> +  "Make sure FILE exists.  If not, ask user what to do.
>> +Automatically exclude lockfiles."
>>    (unless (file-exists-p file)
>> +    (when (string-match-p (rx bos ".#") file) ; Exclude lockfiles
>> +      (org-remove-file file)
>> +      (throw 'nextfile t))
>
> I feel slightly reluctant about this patch:
>
> 1. You are only working around the actual problem with agenda file being
>    deleted from disk while Emacs is loading. So, the patch is not
>    solving a real Org mode problem - Org mode prompting about
>    non-existing file is not wrong; your bug has nothing to do with Org
>    mode itself.
>
> 2. In theory, there might be users with actual Org files starting from
>    ".#" for whatever reason. The probability is not high, but if users
>    choose to set org-agenda-files directly, file-by-file, that's a
>    choice we should better respect in order to not create a blocker.

Yes, I think you're right.  Thanks for your caution :)

Joseph