getting the source finding button in c-h f help buffers to work

[Samuel Wales]

when you do c-h f, emacs provides a link to the source. i have always
relied on this feature.

in my own code, i have always kept byte-compiled files in a separate
directory from the source. this has never been a problem.

in a recent version of emacs, perhaps a recent emacs 24 minor version,
it seems that c-h f source links no longer work if you keep your
byte-compiled files in a separate directory from the source files.
more specifically, they no longer exist.

what i'd like to do is have them exist again, without having to change
the way i load my byte-compiled files just to get them to exist again.

in other words, i want c-h f to work again, the way it did before the
recent version of emacs.

i do not know why this occurs. i just know that it stopped working.
i did not change anything in my .emacs.

i am using "24.4.1".

thanks.

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[Drew Adams]

> when you do c-h f, emacs provides a link to the source. i have always
> relied on this feature.
>
> in my own code, i have always kept byte-compiled files in a separate
> directory from the source. this has never been a problem.
>
> in a recent version of emacs, perhaps a recent emacs 24 minor version,
> it seems that c-h f source links no longer work if you keep your
> byte-compiled files in a separate directory from the source files.
> more specifically, they no longer exist.
>
> what i'd like to do is have them exist again, without having to change
> the way i load my byte-compiled files just to get them to exist again.
>
> in other words, i want c-h f to work again, the way it did before the
> recent version of emacs.
>
> i do not know why this occurs. i just know that it stopped working.
> i did not change anything in my .emacs.
> i am using "24.4.1".

M-x report-emacs-bug

[Emanuel Berg]

Samuel Wales <samol...@gmail.com> writes:

> in a recent version of emacs, perhaps a recent emacs
> 24 minor version, it seems that c-h f source links
> no longer work if you keep your byte-compiled files
> in a separate directory from the source files.

This is especially frustrating after setting up an
ambitious Makefile with all the matches and rules to
get the compiled stuff and the source stuff in
different directories, only to discover this neat
organization of things is what actually breaks
the access!

But unlike you I didn't know this ever to work - and
how can it work? For it to work, you must tell Emacs
where the source is. Perhaps you can tell Emacs some
principle where to look - like "the same directory as
the compiled stuff only in a directory called src/ and
not with the .elc extention but .el" - then, you have
to stick to that in you Makefiles, of course.

--
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http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

[to...@tuxteam.de]

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On Fri, Feb 12, 2016 at 10:24:44AM -0700, Samuel Wales wrote:
> when you do c-h f, emacs provides a link to the source. i have always
> relied on this feature.
>
> in my own code, i have always kept byte-compiled files in a separate
> directory from the source. this has never been a problem.
>

> in a recent version of emacs, perhaps a recent emacs 24 minor version,
> it seems that c-h f source links no longer work if you keep your
> byte-compiled files in a separate directory from the source files.

> more specifically, they no longer exist.

This is a dejà vu...

there was a thread about that here a while ago:

<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-gnu-emacs/2016-02/threads.html#00004>

The gist is you can set a variable `find-function-C-source-directory'
to tip Emacs in the right direction.

Regards
- -- t
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[Drew Adams]

> there was a thread about that here a while ago:
>
> <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-gnu-emacs/2016-
> 02/threads.html#00004>
>
> The gist is you can set a variable `find-function-C-source-directory'
> to tip Emacs in the right direction.

I think the OP is talking about Lisp source files, not C.
He mentioned byte-compiled files.

[to...@tuxteam.de]

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Thanks for pointing out my lapsus.

There's a (customizable) variable `find-function-source-path' which looks
promising (I didn't test it, though).

regards

- -- t
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[Samuel Wales]

find-function-source-path does not work. it is already supposed to work.

"If this variable is nil then `find-function' searches `load-path' by
default."

also we need variables, not only functions.

why did the functionality stop working?