Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!CHIPS.BBN.COM!jr
From: jr@CHIPS.BBN.COM (John Robinson)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: GNU Emacs shell mode and DISPLAY env variable
Message-ID: <10771.602363770@chips>
Date: 1 Feb 89 19:16:10 GMT
References: <8902011634.AA18559@fafnir.think.com>
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: jr@bbn.com
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 44

>    say (to csh):
> 
>      setenv DISPLAY unix:0 ; emacs
> 
> This can be done, but in the local environment it's a pain.  Having to
> bootstrap the display into emacs lisp by means of the underlying shell
> isn't a very effective solution.

Agreed, I didn't like it much either.

> If the X11 code is splicing out the X command line arguments, then
> it's doing something wrong.

It seems to be.  Arguments like -geometry and -fn stay in
command-line-args just fine.  -d and its argument, however, are
stripped by the skip_args mechanism for some reason; they are among
the class that have to be "first" in the arg list (actually there is
an order), like -t and -batch.  Excerpts from emacs.c:main():

#ifdef HAVE_X_WINDOWS
/* Handle the -d switch, which means use a different display for X */
  if (skip_args + 2 < argc && (!strcmp (argv[skip_args + 1], "-d") ||
			       !strcmp (argv[skip_args + 1], "-display")))
    {
      skip_args += 2;
      alternate_display = argv[skip_args];
    } 
  else
    alternate_display = 0;
#endif	/* HAVE_X_WINDOWS */

... and later on ...

  init_cmdargs (argc, argv, skip_args);	/* Create list Vcommand_line_args */

init_cmdargs only puts arguments whose index is 0 (i.e., "emacs") or
greater than skip_args into the Vcommand_line_args.

So I have to conclude that this is a bug, and I think you agree.

Any xpert want to hazard a fix?

/jr
jr@bbn.com or bbn!jr