Hey, been working on this emacs problem all day. I'm running Unstable, up to date. Cinnamon DE. 64-bit.
dummy@dummy:~$ sudo aptitude show emacs [sudo] password for default: Package: emacs Version: 1:26.3+1-1 New: yes State: installed Automatically installed: no Priority: optional Section: editors Maintainer: Rob Browning <r...@defaultvalue.org> Architecture: all Uncompressed Size: 76.8 k Depends: emacs-gtk (>= 1:26.3) | emacs-lucid (>= 1:26.3) | emacs-nox (>= 1:26.3) Provided by: emacs-gtk (1:26.3+1-1), emacs-lucid (1:26.3+1-1), emacs-nox (1:26.3+1-1) Description: GNU Emacs editor (metapackage) GNU Emacs is the extensible self-documenting text editor. This is a metapackage that will always depend on the latest recommended Emacs variant (currently emacs-gtk). Homepage: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ Tags: devel::editor, role::dummy, role::metapackage, role::program, suite::emacs, suite::gnu, use::editing I'm trying to learn Emacs, using: "Learning GNU Emacs". Old, but it would still seem to be a reputable and authoritative source. It says edit .emacs thus: (setq-default abbrev-mode t) (read-abbrev-file "~/.abbrev_defs") (setq save-abbrevs t) Emacs does NOT like that. It wants the read-abbrev-file to be in emacs.d instead, and not a hidden file, so: dummy@dummy:~$ ls ~/.emacs.d/abbrev_defs -rw-r--r-- 1 dummy dummy 1020 Mar 18 16:38 /home/dummy/.emacs.d/abbrev_defs and .emacs is like this: dummy@dummy:~$ cat ~/.emacs (custom-set-variables ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom. ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful. ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance. ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right. '(ansi-color-faces-vector [default default default italic underline success warning error]) '(ansi-color-names-vector ["black" "red3" "ForestGreen" "yellow3" "blue" "magenta3" "DeepSkyBlue" "gray50"]) '(column-number-mode t) '(custom-enabled-themes (quote (whiteboard))) '(display-time-mode t) '(save-place-mode t) '(size-indication-mode t)) (custom-set-faces ;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom. ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful. ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance. ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right. '(default ((t (:family "DejaVu Sans" :foundry "PfEd" :slant normal :weight normal :height 181 :width normal))))) ;; insert date and time (defvar current-date-time-format "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z (%a)" "Format of date to insert with `insert-current-date-time' func See help of `format-time-string' for possible replacements") (defvar current-time-format "%H:%M:%S (%a)" "Format of date to insert with `insert-current-time' func. Note the weekly scope of the command's precision.") (defun insert-current-date-time () "insert the current date and time into current buffer. Uses `current-date-time-format' for the formatting the date/time." (interactive) (insert (format-time-string current-date-time-format (current-time))) (insert "\n\n") ) (defun insert-current-time () "insert the current time (1-week scope) into the current buffer." (interactive) (insert (format-time-string current-time-format (current-time))) (insert "\n\n") ) (global-set-key "\C-c\C-d" 'insert-current-date-time) (global-set-key "\C-c\C-t" 'insert-current-time) ;; customizations manually added by me: (setq column-number-indicator-zero-based nil) (setq default-major-mode 'text-mode) (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill) (setq-default fill-column 79) (setq-default flyspell-mode t) (setq-default abbrev-mode t) (read-abbrev-file "~/.emacs.d/abbrev_defs") (setq save-abbrevs t) I re-start emacs in abbrev-mode (with .emacs, as above). Now add a word abbreviation: C-x a i g [Enter] teh [Enter] the [Enter] C-x C-c Emacs saves it in ~/.emacs.d/abbrev_defs (not ~/.abbrev_defs, as shown in book.) Re-start emacs. It loads the word abbreviation from ~/.emacs.d/abbrev_defs, and it works as expected. BUT, now to REMOVE the word abbreviation from ~/.emacs.d/abbrev_defs . . . The book says: "You can edit the word abbreviation list by typing M-x edit-abbrevs [Enter]". Then (the book says): "To delete any abbreviation, delete the line for that abbreviation and save the file by typing M-x write-abbrev-file." So, do: M-x edit-abbrevs [Enter] then delete the entry in question, then do: M-x write-abbrev-file It prompts with: "Write abbrev file: ~/.emacs.d/" At the prompt, I add "abbrev_defs" like this: "Write abbrev file: ~/.emacs.d/abbrev_defs" [Enter]. The prompt disappears, no error message. Good. Then do: C-x b to switch to default buffer. Then do: C-x C-c to exit emacs. Now re-enter Emacs. THE WORD ABBREVIATION I ENTERED STILL WORKS! IT WAS NEVER REMOVED FROM ~/.emacs.d/abbrev_defs! (Yes, I am shouting. After spending much of the day fighting with this, I am not happy.) Note: I can edit ~/.emacs.d/abbrev_defs, remove the entry, and then save ~/.emacs.d/abbrev_defs, thus removing the entry by brute force. It does work. But I should not have to do that! So what is M-x write-abbrev-file for? I did search for an explanation online, and looked at the Debian bug reports for emacs, but did not find an immediately obvious answer. Grrr . . .
