bug#35418: [PATCH] Don't poll auto-revert files that use notification

[Mattias Engdegård]

fre 2019-05-03 klockan 16:44 +0300 skrev Eli Zaretskii:
> > 
> It is better to cite the node names in the log, unless doing that is
> completely impractical.

Done. I found it a bit impractical in this case, but did so anyway.

> > -@node Autorevert
> > -@section Auto Reverting Non-File Buffers
> > +@c The including file must provide its own @node and @section
> > lines.
> 
> So maybe we shouldn't remove the @node here?  How about making it a
> subsection of "Auto Revert" instead?

The text in arevert-xtra has two subsections already. Then we would
have three subsections, where the first acts as a sort of prelude to
the two others. That might work for the on-line manual, but how would
it fit into emacs-xtra? What would the section be then?

> > +@vindex auto-revert-remote-files
> > +  These minor modes do not check or revert remote files, because
> > that is
> 
> Which "these minor modes"?  Such wording is only appropriate when it
> closely follows a list of modes, which is not the case here.  I think
> it's better to enumerate the modes explicitly here.

Replaced with 'The Auto Revert modes'; this should be readily
understood.

> >  periodically even when file notifications are used.  Such polling
> > is
> >  usually unnecessary, and turning it off may save power by relying
> > on
>    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> I would say "unnecessary in many cases".  "usually" begs the question
> why by default we do poll.  Bonus points for adding some hint about
> what rare situations do need such polling, as I think this
> description
> sounds like a small riddle without that, and doesn't allow people to
> make an educated decision regarding whether they do or don't want the
> polling turned off.

Done, but the hint you are asking for does come right after:

  [...] However,
  notification is ineffective on certain file systems; mainly network
  file system on Unix-like machines, where files can be altered from
  other machines.

which is the most important case that I'm aware of. (According to
Michael, Tramp notifications can be unreliable sometimes, but they have
to be enabled actively.)

Thanks for the review! Revised patch attached.

0001-Reorganise-auto-revert-nodes-in-the-manual.patch
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