customize -> save for future disrespects symlinks

[Michael Wardle]

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In GNU Emacs 21.4.1 (i386-pc-linux-gnu)
 of 2005-03-18 on trouble, modified by Debian
configured using `configure '--build=i386-linux' '--host=i386-linux' 
'--prefix=/usr' '--sharedstatedir=/var/lib' '--libexecdir=/usr/lib' 
'--localstatedir=/var/lib' '--infodir=/usr/share/info' 
'--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--with-pop=yes' '--with-x=no' 'CFLAGS=-DDEBIAN -g 
-O2' 'build_alias=i386-linux' 'host_alias=i386-linux''
Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: en_AU.utf8
  locale-coding-system: utf-8
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Please describe exactly what actions triggered the bug
and the precise symptoms of the bug:

My Emacs initialization file $HOME/.emacs is a symbolic link to
$HOME/etc/emacs.  Basic operations on this file -- such as opening,
writing, and (I think) modifiying the file using the version control
mode (vc-mode) will dereference the symlink, make changes to the
symlink's destination, and leave the symlink in place.

When I did:
describe-variable sh-basic-offset
4=8
state save for future sessions

This added a custom-set-variables expression to the end of my
$HOME/.emacs file, but stripped the symlink such that $HOME/.emacs
no longer pointed to $HOME/etc/emacs.

Recent messages:
Creating customization buffer...
Loading wid-browse...done
Creating customization buttons...
Creating customization items...
Creating customization items ...done
Creating customization setup...
Creating customization buffer...done
widget-before-change: Text is read-only: "Change should be restricted to a 
single field"
Wrote /home/michael/.emacs
Loading emacsbug...done