Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucla-cs!twinsun!twinsun!sdk From: sdk@ata.twinsun.com (Scott D Kalter) Newsgroups: comp.emacs Subject: Re: Why can't I set default-directory ? Message-ID: Date: 11 Aug 90 18:24:09 GMT References: Sender: usenet@twinsun.com Organization: Twin Sun, Inc. Lines: 21 In-Reply-To: cje@elbereth.rutgers.edu's message of 10 Aug 90 18:50:20 GMT First of all, I suspect you realize that default-directory is a buffer local variable. Each buffer has its own copy of this variable and may have a unique value. Normally, this variable gets set when you find a file to the directory that file is in. It seems slightly odd that you want to change this variable, in a specific buffer, to other random directories. However, as not to get in the way of experimentation, the problem that you are experiencing is that the variable is not interactive. In other words, it isn't meant to be modified by the user via set-variable. You can bypass this by setting it in lisp code like: (setq default-directory '"/tmp/") Therefore, you can write your own routine that modifies this variable, make the routine interactive, and bind it to a key. Hope this helps, -sdk