Re: Documentation for custom-file - is not (load custom-file) needed?

[Luc Teirlinck]

When I previously replied, I had not seen your latest version.
That version takes care of one of the problems I mentioned.  The
version in the patch below takes care of the two others. It also fixes
some other things:

1.  It says when the file is loaded if you do not do it yourself.
    There are situations where that can matter.

2.  The current docstring does not make clear that you do not need to
    set `custom-file' in your init file, if you set it through Custom
    and explicitly load it in your init file, which to me seems
    somewhat cleaner anyway, if you set it with a defcustom elsewhere.

3.  It explains why it is _not_ outright silly to set it through Custom,
    even though you have to edit .emacs anyway.

I can install if desired.

===File ~/cus-edit.el-diff==================================
*** cus-edit.el 05 Dec 2004 19:05:44 -0600      1.200
--- cus-edit.el 05 Dec 2004 20:33:52 -0600      
***************
*** 3677,3693 ****
  ;;;###autoload
  (defcustom custom-file nil
    "File used for storing customization information.
! The default is nil, which means to use your init file
! as specified by `user-init-file'.  To make this feature work,
! you'll need to put something in your init file to specify
! the value of `custom-file'.  Just customizing the variable
! won't suffice, because Emacs won't know which file to load
! unless the init file sets `custom-file'.
  
  When you change this variable, look in the previous custom file
  \(usually your init file) for the forms `(custom-set-variables ...)'
  and `(custom-set-faces ...)', and copy them (whichever ones you find)
! to the new custom file.  This will preserve your existing customizations."
    :type '(choice (const :tag "Your Emacs init file" nil) file)
    :group 'customize)
  
--- 3677,3701 ----
  ;;;###autoload
  (defcustom custom-file nil
    "File used for storing customization information.
! The default is nil, which means to use your init file as specified by
! `user-init-file'.  If non-nil, use an absolute file name.
! 
! If you set this variable in your init file, Emacs automatically
! loads the file after your init file, if you did not load it earlier.
! If you set this variable through Custom, you have to put
! `(load \"CUSTOM-FILENAME\") in your init file.  Certain features of
! Custom work better if you set all your user options through
! Custom.  Thus, setting this variable through Custom makes sense,
! even though you still have to edit your init file.
  
  When you change this variable, look in the previous custom file
  \(usually your init file) for the forms `(custom-set-variables ...)'
  and `(custom-set-faces ...)', and copy them (whichever ones you find)
! to the new custom file.  This will preserve your existing customizations.
! If you set this option through Custom, while your old custom file is
! loaded, Custom copies the forms for you, but also leaves them
! in the old file.  You might want to delete them from the old file
! after checking that they got copied correctly."
    :type '(choice (const :tag "Your Emacs init file" nil) file)
    :group 'customize)
  
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