Re: [RFC PATCH v1 0/1] Avoid accidentally overwriting macro recording

Benno Schulenberg <[email protected]> Sat, 14 Feb 2026 16:57:46 +0100

Newsgroups	gmane.editors.nano.devel
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

> I personally love this change, I have accidentally overrode macros plenty of 
> times. Accidentally running a destructive macro can usually be undone,

Well, with "destructive" I meant a macro that does something that cannot
be undone, like writing stuff out to a file.  (Of course, that file could
be under version control, but it's not nano that can undo those changes.)

> but there's isn't really a way to get a macro back.

Yeah.  I guess that point weighs more heavily.  And when the user wants to
clear a dangerous macro, it is easy enough to overwrite it with something
innocuous, like M-D or toggling something twice.

So... a cleaned up patch is attached.  Is it okay with you, Charles?


Benno

0001-macro-cancel-the-recording-if-nothing-was-entered-be.patch (text/x-patch, 1.7 KB)

From 617045f09046cfceaf65b9e42ffe6acdd0c69631 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Charles Mirabile <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2026 12:21:21 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] macro: cancel the recording if nothing was entered between
 start and stop

When the user stops a macro recording immediately after starting it,
cancel the recording and restore the macro that existed previously,
instead of storing a new empty macro.

Signed-off-by: Charles Mirabile <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Benno Schulenberg <[email protected]>
---
 src/winio.c | 13 +++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+)

diff --git a/src/winio.c b/src/winio.c
index f6d07f56..4767ace2 100644
--- a/src/winio.c
+++ b/src/winio.c
@@ -79,6 +79,10 @@ static int *macro_buffer = NULL;
 		/* A buffer where the recorded key codes are stored. */
 static size_t macro_length = 0;
 		/* The current length of the macro. */
+static int *previous_macro = NULL;
+		/* The macro that existed when recording is started. */
+static size_t previous_length = 0;
+		/* The length of that previous macro. */
 static size_t milestone = 0;
 		/* Where the last burst of recorded keystrokes started. */
 
@@ -96,9 +100,18 @@ void record_macro(void)
 	recording = !recording;
 
 	if (recording) {
+		previous_macro = macro_buffer;
+		previous_length = macro_length;
+		macro_buffer = NULL;
 		macro_length = 0;
 		statusline(REMARK, _("Recording a macro..."));
+	} else if (milestone == 0) {
+		free(macro_buffer);
+		macro_buffer = previous_macro;
+		macro_length = previous_length;
+		statusline(REMARK, _("Cancelled"));
 	} else {
+		free(previous_macro);
 		/* Snip the keystroke that invoked this function. */
 		macro_length = milestone;
 		statusline(REMARK, _("Stopped recording"));
-- 
2.53.0

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