How can I get sessions.el to save my registers?

Question

I am trying to get session to work, and I am especially keen on having my registers persistent between sessions. I installed the package sessions.el via Melpa (M-x list-packages) and I added this to my .emacs

(require 'session)
(add-hook 'after-init-hook 'session-initialize)

and I also added this as recommended in the session.el file (even though desktop is not enabled)

(setq desktop-globals-to-save '(desktop-missing-file-warning))

This doesn't seem to be working though. I tried saving my registers but they are not persistent across sessions. I tried changing the value of session-globals-include via M-x customize-group RET session RET to include register. This is what emacs added to my .emacs file after the changes in custom

 '(session-globals-include
   (quote
    ((kill-ring 10 nil)
     (session-file-alist 100 t)
     (file-name-history 200 nil)
     search-ring regexp-search-ring
     (register-alist 100 t))))
 '(session-use-package t nil (session)))

Still, when I try to invoke a register using C-x r j r (the set register from the previous session), it says "Register doesn't contain a buffer position or configuration". I am not even sure anything is being saved between sessions. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

You can use Emacs's built-in package desktop.el instead, it saves registers by default. To use it, put following to your init file:

(desktop-save-mode)
;; prior to Emacs 24
(desktop-save-mode 1)

---

You can also use other packages, such as built-in package savehist.el, as long as you can use it to keep value of the variable register-alist across session.

Answer 2

This is what I use:

;; don't use desktop mode for terminal
(when (display-graphic-p)
  (desktop-save-mode 1);; is x window
  ())

;; Add variables to desktop saving
(add-to-list 'desktop-globals-to-save 'register-alist)