bug#81509: 31.0.91; Calling dired on nonexistent directory changes current buffer

On Tue, 28 Jul 2026 20:04:32 +0530 (IST) Madhu <[email protected]> wrote:

> *  Stephen Berman <[email protected]> <[email protected]>
> Wrote on Tue, 28 Jul 2026 15:55:29 +0200
>> This behavior is a by-product of 3b7d9e37ce0c.  (BTW, the nonexistent
>> directory doesn't have to be represented by a wildcard in the sense of a
>> shell glob (e.g. *nonexist*), i.e. C-x d /tmp/a/nonexist also shows the
>> same behavior.  But /tmp/a/nonexist is a wildcard in the sense of
>> insert-directory and maybe that's what the OP meant.)  Before that
>> change, when attempting to visit in Dired a nonexistent directory,
>> insert-directory signalled an error, which short-circuited the Dired
>> command, so that the current buffer when the Dired command was invoked
>> remained current.  Since 3b7d9e37ce0c, ls errors, such as trying to
>> display a nonexistent directory, are now shown in a special buffer after
>> completing the Dired command, as you observed.  But the Dired commands
>> use `pop-to-buffer-same-window' and
>> `switch-to-buffer-other-{window,frame,tab}' and calling these with a
>> nonexistent directory - i.e. with nil - as argument makes another buffer
>> current.  I agree this is surprising behavior.  The attached patch
>> prevents this, i.e., the buffer that was current when the Dired command
>> was invoked remains current when the directory to be visited is
>> nonexistent.  Madhu, can you confirm?
>
> Thanks, the patch works as expected, --Regards, Madhu

Thanks for confirming, now pushed to emacs-31.

>> Eli, if this patch DTRT for Madhu can it be installed in emacs-31, since
>> the undesirable behavior was due to changes there?
>
> PS btw did you have any special display buffer rules to recommend for
> *ls-error*?

If you mean to change how it's currently displayed, no: the function I
wrote for that (dired--display-ls-error) does the simplest reasonable
thing I could think of (displaying the error message on the same frame
in a window just large enough to see the entire message).

Steve Berman