Questions tagged [variables]
for variables in Emacs Lisp, which are symbols with values. The symbol’s name is also called the variable name. Most variable names, by convention, consist of lowercase, ordinary words separated by hyphens.
206
questions
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answers
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How to evaluate the variables before adding them to a list?
The below obviously doesn't work and hence this question.
How do I correct the below code so that the value of somelist becomes '(("abc" . 123)) ?
(setq x "abc")
(setq y 123)
(setq somelist nil)
(...
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votes
2
answers
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what does "let*" ( let asterisk) mean in elisp
I've used let before, but never used let*
what does let* ( let asterisk) mean in elisp?
fyi this one was hard to google because of the asterisk.
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3
answers
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Reset custom variable to default value programmatically
Q: Using Elisp, how can I reset a variable to its default value without knowing what that value is?
I tried to figure out how to do this by bringing up the Customize interface for a variable I set to ...
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votes
3
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Assigning same value to multiple variables?
Sometimes I need to set same value to multiple variables.
In Python, I could do
f_loc1 = f_loc2 = "/foo/bar"
But in elisp, I am writing
(setq f_loc1 "/foo/bar" f_loc2 "/foo/bar")
I am wondering ...
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votes
2
answers
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Elisp: How to exclude sensitive information from an init file? (ie login credentials)
I want to define a log in function in my init script, but I don't want to hardcode my login credentials. I think a good workaround is to have my init script read in my login credentials from a local ...
- 2,452
11
votes
2
answers
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Search through the values of all variables in Emacs
I'd like to find which variables contain a certain value.
Is there a way to do a regex search through the values of every variable in Emacs?
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2
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How to include other .org files programmatically (ie not from main .org file)?
Including other .org files is quite easy. For example, for configuration,
#+setupfile: /path/to/config.org
or
#INCLUDE: /path/to/config.org
Those lines need to be in the .org file in order to be ...
- 1,752
11
votes
1
answer
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Color declared variables
I'm looking for a simple way to make emacs remember of declared variable in a single function in C/C++. By "simple", I mean without any external package, just with some elisp lines in configuration ...
- 173
10
votes
4
answers
638
views
Can I reload a library and have defvar re-assign values?
I am developing a library and would like to reload it after editing without exiting Emacs (assume that it is on load-path):
(load-library "myname")
When I do this, Emacs doesn't pick up changes to ...
- 3,362
9
votes
3
answers
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views
Quick way to toggle a variable
It would be nice to have a quick way to toggle a variable. Here's something that I have in mind.
Call a "toggle var" function.
The completing-read should list only variables that have single values (...
- 25.4k
9
votes
1
answer
12k
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Symbol’s function definition is void
I am trying to make an interactive toggle in emacs 27.0.90
When I eval-region no warnings or errors are shown.
However, when I do (helm/toggle-frame) in ielm it throws
Symbol’s function definition is ...
- 93
9
votes
0
answers
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Display all local variables within a edebug session
When using edebug one can get a local variable by command describe-variable (C-h v), but are there any ways to display all local variables?
For example in Python you can call locals() in a pdb ...
- 938
8
votes
3
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interactively edit emacs variable in buffer
I was looking at
this
on StackOverflow and was wondering if there was a nice way built-in to
edit strings of text stored in variables as if they were buffers? M-x set-variable doesn't really cut it ...
- 3,667
8
votes
1
answer
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views
Autoloads and variables
I understand what autoload does for functions (register file to load when
such function is called or its documentation string is retrieved). However,
it's not clear how to use autoload facility in ...
- 4,933
7
votes
4
answers
354
views
Tracking when variables get updated
I have a problem with org-mode's agenda view. While I've set org-agenda-files to '("~/org/") invariably when I finally spin up M-x org-agenda I find that org-agenda-files just points to one org-file. ...
- 4,626
7
votes
1
answer
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Define a function alias within a let binding?
How can I define an alias within a script with let-binding?
I tried
(let (b-s)
(defalias 'b-s 'buffer-string))
But it doesn't work.
I figured out to let-bind the variable where aliases as stored ...
- 1,235
7
votes
1
answer
262
views
What type of variable binding is setq creating?
What type of variable binding or variable or symbol is setq creating, when the variable hasn't been declared prior setq?
Given following source code:
;; -*- lexical-binding: t; -*-
(defun setq-x ()
...
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7
votes
2
answers
973
views
The default value of buffer-local variable not set until first `setq`
Say I define a buffer-local variable foo, and its default value is "a":
(defvar foo "a")
(make-variable-buffer-local 'foo)
(default-value 'foo) ;; => "a"
Immediately after this I run the ...
- 797
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votes
1
answer
1k
views
Scope in lambda
In my .emacs conf file, I've got this function that adds a hook to set the compile-command based on the mode. It looks something like,
(defun set-compile-cmd (mode-hook cmd)
(add-hook mode-hook (...
- 63
6
votes
2
answers
488
views
What does customize: Set for Current Session do?
I have a variable that I want to switch between two different values and have it apply for the whole session. I'm able to do this using M-x customize-variable and picking "Set for Current Session".
...
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6
votes
2
answers
275
views
Are there any libraries in Emacs or the wider package system for automatically persisting variables
I have a number of variables that store useful state that would be nice to persist across restarts of Emacs. Are there any libraries that allow this to be done simply so I can avoid a bunch of ...
- 4,626
6
votes
1
answer
193
views
Surprisingly persistent local variable
A local variable keeps coming back, and I know not whence.
In a certain buffer,
TeX-command-extra-options is "--synctex=1", even after I have removed
this from my init.el and restarted Emacs.
I tried ...
- 3,254
6
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Debugging "Warning: Reference to free variable"
I have something like below (from the answer) in my init file:
(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook 'my-latex-hook)
(defun my-latex-hook ()
(require 'tex-site)
(define-key LaTeX-mode-map "-" (lambda () (...
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6
votes
1
answer
296
views
What's really behind an assignment in Emacs lisp?
[Warning : these are noob questions.]
I'm a beginner in Emacs Lisp and I would like to be sure that I understand well what I'm really doing when I set a value to a variable with setq or let.
Here is ...
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votes
1
answer
673
views
How to store the variable value after Emacs was closed
Suppose, we have a variable defined in ~/.emacs:
(defvar *my-var* "")
Then in **scratch** buffer we set some value to it:
(setq *my-var* "value")
After we close emacs the value will be lost. How ...
- 1,059
6
votes
1
answer
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elisp: What does "setf" do?
I read the official documentation.
Here's what not clear:
Scope: If I do a setf in a function, is that visible in another function.
Undo: How do I undo it.
in ruby, you can do
def myfunc
a = "...
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6
votes
1
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303
views
Best way to support obsolete variables
Emacs 25.1 obsoletes a variable isearch-word and recommends to use the new isearch-regexp-function instead. Because Emacs 24 does not have the new variable, I can't just replace it like:
(if isearch-...
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6
votes
1
answer
265
views
I'm unsure which option to use for setting a variable: setq, customize-set-variable, or setopt
I'm a bit uncertain about which method to use for setting a variable: setq, customize-set-variable, or setopt. I did some research online, and it seems that opinions on this matter are quite varied. ...
- 421
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votes
3
answers
852
views
init.el - setq or defvar
I want to define a trash directory in my user-init-file but I don't know which way to do this is best or most correct. I currently have something like this:
(defvar my-trash-dir
(expand-file-name "....
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5
votes
2
answers
1k
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Set buffer-local variable in buffer other than the current one?
I'm in buffer A and I want to set a buffer-local variable in buffer B. I'm currently doing:
(with-current-buffer B
(setq-local some-var 'some-val))
but is there a way to do this without changing ...
- 1,938
5
votes
3
answers
268
views
What are the conditions when a variable can be both dynamically bound and cause a void-variable issue?
I get:
Debugger entered--Lisp error: (void-variable implicit-layout-active)
When using a variable declared as dynamically bound:
(void-variable implicit-layout-active)
I thought I cannot get void-...
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votes
1
answer
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Error void-variable on function name
What is the difference between the two functions func1 and func2?
(defun func1 (arg)
(if (listp arg)
(mapcar (lambda (x) (func1 x)) arg)
arg))
(func1 (list 1 2 3))
(defun func2 (arg)
(...
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votes
3
answers
385
views
Set (non-custom) variable to its initial value
Is there a (quick) way of resetting a variable to its default value (as defined in some .el file) after it has been modified? e.g. via commands in the .emacs file, without having to restart emacs.
...
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votes
2
answers
741
views
Where are these variables defined? - bytecomp Warnings
Lately I'm getting warnings when compiling the .emacs
Warning (bytecomp): reference to free variable ‘url-http-extra-headers’
Warning (bytecomp): reference to free variable ‘oauth--token-data’
...
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votes
1
answer
974
views
How do you pass a variable in to a lambda?
How can I pass a stringvariable in to this function, so
that instead of printing "This is a test",
it prints "This is a value-of-variable"
(async-start
;; What to do in the child process
(...
- 3,853
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votes
1
answer
169
views
Can a symbol have a function, variable, and class?
Q: can one symbol refer to a function, a variable, and a class?
Elisp is a Lisp-2 in which a symbol can have separate
function and variable values. So, for example, I can define the
following ...
Dan♦
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votes
1
answer
205
views
Function add-variable-watcher does not watch "last-command" variable
I have added a watcher function to watch the last-command variable.
(defun my-watch (symbol newval op where)
(message "Hello"))
(add-variable-watcher 'last-command #'my-watch)
The ...
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votes
2
answers
110
views
describe-variable show characters instead of numbers
Is there a way to have describe-variable show characters instead of numbers where it makes sense?
Here's for example output of describe-variable word-separating-categories:
word-separating-...
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votes
0
answers
555
views
list of current variables in a buffer for Python code
I would like to find a way to reproduce the "Workspace" of Matlab or the equivalent "Variables" window of the awesome pudb debugger directly in emacs for python code: it is a window which details the ...
4
votes
3
answers
731
views
Set an Elisp var on the command line and read it in the init file
I'm trying to set a variable at load-time:
# emacs --eval '(defvar myvar t)'
Now, in this session, if I C-h v myvar RET I get a nice t. But if I put (message "MYVAR: %s" myvar) in my init file, I ...
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1
answer
429
views
Why emacs can not see outer variable in lambda function?
I had a simple config to set fci-rule-column to different values depend on file types:
(use-package fill-column-indicator
:ensure t
:config
(setq fci-rule-color "LightSlateBlue")
(setq fci-...
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4
votes
1
answer
94
views
Per-host background colour
Having got a bunch of custom colors defined (thanks to Drew), I need to use them to customize the background color per host. I have named the colors after the hostname, eg
(setq pentacle "#314159")
(...
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votes
1
answer
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views
Why isn't this variable being set although it is set in my .emacs?
In my init.el file I have the following line (setq js2-basic-offset 2)
The last line in my .init.el file is
(add-hook 'after-init-hook
(lambda ()
(message "Welcome home %s" (user-...
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How do I insert code block header :var in exported code block in org-mode
GNU Emacs 26.0.50.2 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.18.9) of 2016-10-06
Org-mode version 8.3.5 (release_8.3.5-1131-g7eecb2 @ ~/.emacs.d/el-get/org-mode/lisp/)
I have come to share my projects as ...
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3
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How can I create mode-local variables?
I'm looking to create a command which stores a kind of "history" for the current major-mode. I need the variable to be independent for each major mode, but consistent across all buffers in any ...
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Should "custom" variables defined without defcustom be set via custom-set-variables or setq?
Should I use custom-set-variables (as opposed to setq) when setting a variable that returns non-nil for custom-variable-p but was not defined by defcustom?
For example, echo-keystrokes is defined in ...
- 1,938
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votes
1
answer
2k
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Fixing "reference/assignment to free variable" warning during compilation if variable is dynamically bounded
For:
(defun my-ag/font-lock-extend-region ()
(save-excursion
(goto-char font-lock-beg)
(forward-line 2)
(setq font-lock-beg (point))))
I've got:
Warning: reference to free variable '...
- 3,362
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votes
1
answer
361
views
Controling what an org-link points to with variables
Let's say I have the following:
#+NAME: output-directory
/path/to/output/directory
Results can be found [[file+emacs:/path/to/output/directory][here]].
Is there a way for me to have an org link to ...
- 3,603
4
votes
2
answers
456
views
Why is TAGS table setting persistent?
I have in my startup init file a setting:
(setq tags-table-list (list "~/linux/TAGS"))
After using emacs and TAGS tables, I now want to change that to:
(setq tags-table-list (list "~/trunk/TAGS"))
...
- 383
4
votes
1
answer
245
views
Make a variable visible to some functions only
Consider the following metacode:
;;; -*- lexical-binding: t -*-
(defvar var1 ...)
(defvar var2 ...)
(defun main ()
"Main entry point" ...)
(defun func1 ...)
(defun func2 ...)
...
(defun funcn ...)...
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