Ihor, thanks again.
> #+property: header-args :var common_variable = "foo" ah, hierarchical :var's. i didn't realize such existed. of course, then, you're right. a dream might be something like ":var none" to allow the dot source code block to indicate it wasn't expecting any ":var" anyway. but, i guess then one would want to allow picking and choosing: ---- : #+header: :var =common_variable ---- or some such to disable *that*? maybe, anyway, a warning message *might* be nice -- "failing" (as the user may see it) silently can be hard to debug. cheers, Greg