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When I try to use the function ff-find-other-file on a C file, and the header file does not exist, I expect emacs to create a header file at the current location.

Since I started using helm, something else happens:

$ mkdir /tmp/helm-other-file
$ cd /tmp/helm-other-file
$ emacs a.c

M-x ff-find-other-file opens a helm buffer with two entries:

/tmp/helm-other-file/.
/tmp/helm-other-file/..

I expected that selecting the first would mean to create the buffer at that location: /tmp/helm-other-file/a.h.

Instead, the following is created: /tmp/helm-other-file/a.h/a.h. That's one (new) directory too deep.

If I select the .. version, to compensate for "too deep", I get /tmp/a.h. That's not deep enough.

If I go up a level with C-l after ff-find-other-file, then select helm-other-file/, I go back to this: /tmp/helm-other-file/a.h/a.h.

How can I fix ff-find-other-file so that unfound header file is created at the same location as the C file, with helm? I'm aware that helm-projectile might fix this, but I don't want to bring in the whole package only for that function.

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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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It seems you've helm-mode enabled, the minor mode overwrites Emacs' built-in completing behavior, the thing you want is the default (it comes from completing-read's DEF argument) value, you can either C-RET (helm-cr-empty-string) to apply the default value or M-n (next-history-element) to insert the default value then RET.

You can also blacklist ff-find-other-file from helm-mode, next time helm-mode won't be involved in ff-find-other-file:

(add-to-list 'helm-completing-read-handlers-alist
             '(ff-find-other-file . nil))
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  • C-RET did the trick, thanks! When does the behavior I'm observing make sense?
    – Gauthier
    Commented May 22, 2020 at 13:38
  • @Gauthier ff-find-other-file's use of read-directory-name is suspicious, it supplies a filename such as a.h as DEFAULT-DIRNAME, though it works fine with vanilla Emacs as it simply returns a.h, but with helm-mode, when you select the current directory, read-directory-name returns $PWD/a.h/.
    – xuchunyang
    Commented May 22, 2020 at 15:07

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