Re: Relation between the value of shell-file-name and explicit-shell-file-name

[Lennart Borgman]

Stuart D. Herring wrote:
> > What is the relation between the values of these two variables? Could
> > the doc strings please mention something about it? (Does
> > explicit-shell-file-name override shell-file-name for explicitly
> > requested shells? Are those the shells started with M-x shell? )
> >     
>
> `explicit-shell-file-name' is only ever used by M-x shell.  It does
>
> (or explicit-shell-file-name
>     (getenv "ESHELL") shell-file-name)
>
> which obviously prefers $ESHELL to `shell-file-name' and
> `explicit-shell-file-name' to $ESHELL.  Note that it was different in
> Emacs 21:
>
> (or explicit-shell-file-name
>     (getenv "ESHELL")
>     (getenv "SHELL")
>     "/bin/sh")
>
> Here `shell-file-name' is absent.  The idea is that e-s-f-n is the
> "personal" shell and s-f-n is the "utility" shell used by such things as
> M-! and (unless you customize `ediff-shell') M-x ediff.
>
> What do you want added to e-s-f-n's doc string to clarify this?
>   

Thanks Davis. I think the best would be to tell that it is only used by 
the function shell. And BTW the doc string for shell is incorrect 
regarding what shell file name to use.