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In Ubuntu, when I make change to directories or files outside emacs, it seems that emacs doesn't get the update.

For example, C-x C-f can't track the current directory which was just moved elsewhere outside emacs.

Another example: in a shell created by C-x shell, the autocompletion of directory or file name doesn't work, if the current directory has been moved elsewhere outside emacs.

Can I make emacs get the update made outside emacs? Thanks.

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    I haven't seen that problem. Many time, I rename/delete/update a file outside of emacs and I have always seen that file buffer begin marked as modified when I revert that buffer (or almost immediately if auto-revert-mode is on). Can you please give a set of steps on how to recreate that problem in an emacs -Q session?
    – Kaushal Modi
    Commented Mar 8, 2016 at 20:21
  • I sometimes run in similar issues, esp. when I delete the shell's current directory, but it's hard to reproduce it. Typically, just killing the shell buffer and then starting a new one solves it.
    – wvxvw
    Commented Mar 8, 2016 at 21:51
  • I build it from the source code. Works like a charm!
    – Bill Zimmerly
    Commented Mar 8, 2016 at 22:09

1 Answer 1

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Well, Emacs is able to acknowledge changes outside, as long as the result is a file / directory with the same name. This includes temporary deletion and renaming. A renaming of a file or directory outside of Emacs is not visible to Emacs, because it has no information what the renamed file / directory shall be.

Starting with Emacs 24.5, Emacs supports file notifications from the underlying OS for some platforms. This could be used to be aware of renaming a file / directory outside of Emacs. But this feature hasn't been implemented yet, as far as I am aware of.

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