Nick Dokos <nicholas.do...@hp.com> writes: > François Pinard <pin...@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:
>> When Org mode defines a link for me, it sometimes changes it so it >> becomes relative. [...] This is OK in general, but not always. >> [...] I have feeling that there is something deeper which might >> likely affect many Org mode users, and for which I have no general >> solution to offer. > Check > (info "(org) Handling links") > in the manual, particularly the doc for C-u C-c C-l. Hi, Nick, and gang. Yes, I knew about prefixes to C-c C-l, which may be used to force links to be absolute. Systematic use of C-u C-u C-c C-l instead of C-c C-l would be tedious, that's why I think there is a deeper problem about the current defaults. There is a virtue in relative links which I recognize. So having an option to force all links to be absolute might not be a solution. Having all links relative just cannot work. Letting the user properly manage is quite error-prone, and fairly annoying at least. If you put a gun on my head and say "suggest something", without much time to think, I would go something that way: * cutting part of a buffer containing links, links should be turned absolute before going in the clipboard or kill ring, * pasting text containing links, links should be turned relative whenever it makes sense to do so. What is "making sense", above? * if a file receiving the link is not part of the agenda files, the current algorithm is OK, * if a file receiving the link is part of the agenda files, and that agenda file is directly under org-directory, the current algorithm is OK, * if a file receiving the link is part of the agenda files, and that agenda file is not directly under org-directory, make the link absolute, This would have consequences: * the agenda buffer should automatically be cd'ed to org-directory, * adding (removing) a file to (from) the list of agenda-files becomes a complex operation, requiring all links to be adjusted. All of the above is surely very debatable, and other people may likely devise other approaches. That's why I say it may require deeper thought. I would only like to stress that there is a problem. François P.S. I have lot of links, and I often move contents around in files. Adjusting links while doing so has been a bit painful all along. So far, I used mixes of Python scripts, editionswith Vim, or sometimes editions with Emacs in fundamental mode. And I wrote a cross-checking and diagnosis tool which I run at least daily, at backup time.
