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I wrote a wrapper for the existing export function. My wrapper adds an appropriate bibliography: link, calls the original export function and then removes the bibliography: link. In summary, the function modifies the buffer, but undoes those modifications (without actually using undo).
Is it safe to put the body of such a function inside with-silent-modifications?
Yes, it should be safe (assuming you're careful enough to make sure that the buffer is really unchanged in the end).
But be careful: if the code that is run while the buffer is modified is complex enough you might get into trouble (e.g. it might fill the syntax-ppss cache with data which won't be flushed when you undo the changes). Even worse if the code runs external processes asynchronously, in which case the effect of with-silent-modifications might leak to code that doesn't expect it.
buffer-undo-listis also cloned, then it may be necessary to use something like(let ((buffer-undo-list t)) ...)to preserve the list. I voted to close this current thread because usingwith-silent-modificationsis a matter of personal preference, and people may like it or not like it for a variety of reasons. – lawlist Jul 11 '17 at 13:21buffer-undo-listis not the only thing achieved bywith-silent-modifications. The latter also makes sure that the buffer is considered to be unmodified (if it was such before the modification). – AlwaysLearning Jul 11 '17 at 14:55with-silent-modificationsis not a valid reason to close all threads about it! – AlwaysLearning Jul 11 '17 at 15:10