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I added the following line to my init file to replace ruby-mode with enh-ruby-mode:

(setq auto-mode-alist (mapcar (lambda (x) (if (eq (cdr x) 'ruby-mode) (cons (car x) 'enh-ruby-mode) x)) auto-mode-alist))

But it works only for the first file. The first ruby file I open is in enh-ruby-mode. But in the process the following command is executed:

/usr/share/emacs/26.3/lisp/progmodes/ruby-mode.el.gz:

;;;###autoload (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist (cons (purecopy (concat "\\(?:\\.\\(?:" "rbw?\\|ru\\|rake\\|thor" "\\|jbuilder\\|rabl\\|gemspec\\|podspec" "\\)" "\\|/" "\\(?:Gem\\|Rake\\|Cap\\|Thor" "\\|Puppet\\|Berks" "\\|Vagrant\\|Guard\\|Pod\\)file" "\\)\\'")) 'ruby-mode))

(The same line is in /usr/share/emacs/26.3/lisp/loaddefs.el.) Which means the second and the following files are opened in ruby-mode.

I guess to remedy this I've got to not change the line in auto-mode-alist, but add one. Anyways, how does this autoload thing work? When does loaddefs.el get executed? Is there a way to keep the line out of the file?

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  • This looks like a land grab to me: it should be up to the users to set auto-mode-alist as they see fit. I would open a bug report. In the meantime, you can force the autoload with (require 'ruby-mode) in your init file and then hack auto-mode-alist to your heart's content. Commented Jul 23, 2020 at 2:38
  • @NickD Can you possibly explain how it works? Without requiring ruby-mode, how does emacs know that it has to update auto-mode-alist? Okay, probably from loaddefs.el. But is it a generated file? When does the generation happen? When is loaddefs executed? And why does requiring ruby-mode solve it? Commented Jul 23, 2020 at 9:55
  • My guess is that when emacs is built, ruby-mode's add-to-list call is copied to loaddefs.el. As such when emacs starts ruby-mode is set up to be used for ruby files. But it also provides for ruby-mode function to be autoloaded. Then when I change auto-mode-alist, something triggers the function, rube-mode.el gets loaded, and the line is back in auto-mode-alist. Commented Jul 24, 2020 at 8:05
  • @NickD You might want to check out my answer. Also, if you're going to file a bug report, please add a link here afterwards. Commented Jul 24, 2020 at 9:06
  • I don't use ruby or ruby-mode or enh-ruby-mode, so I'm not going to file a bug report. Commented Jul 24, 2020 at 16:49

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The thing can be reproduced with expand-region package installed.

From what I can see, when enh-ruby-mode gets activated, expand-region loads enh-ruby-mode-expansions.el. But that in its turn loads ruby-mode-expansions.el, which requires ruby-mode.el.

As a result, when you open a ruby file, enh-ruby-mode gets activated, but still ruby-mode.el is also loaded.

So, if I change auto-mode-alist in my init file, then when I open a ruby file, ruby-mode.el gets executed, and adds the association with ruby-mode back.

To avoid that one has to require ruby-mode.el in advance (before opening ruby files).

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