Hi,
The file system modification time as accessed by {{{modification-time}}}
is often wrong, e.g. when a project is newly cloned or if the file has
been copied in a sloppy manner. At least if modification time suggest the
time that the file was edited by an author.
Sometimes vc can provide a better answer. The attached patch tries to get
a sensible time from vc.
Caveats:
- There’s no customization. I think that’s fine. If someone feels
strongly against this behavior a defcustom could be added or we could
add another a macro, {{{vc-modification-time}}}.
- org-macs will depend on vc. I don’t really see why this would be an
issue as vc is bundled with Emacs.
I have only tested this with git, but it should work with other vc
backends to the extend that ‘parse-time-string’ can handle the way they
format dates.
WDYT?
Rasmus
--
Even a three-legged dog has three good legs to lose
>From a3298310fe5f399dacd5ab13b725a95d9c626a21 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Rasmus <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2016 17:15:29 +0200
Subject: [PATCH 1/3] org-macro: Maybe get modification-time from vc.el
* org-macro.el (org-macro-initialize-templates): Check modification-time
in version control via vc.
* doc/org.texi (Macro replacement): Document new behavior.
* etc/ORG-NEWS: Mention new behavior.
---
doc/org.texi | 6 +++---
etc/ORG-NEWS | 4 +++-
lisp/org-macro.el | 27 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
3 files changed, 32 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
diff --git a/doc/org.texi b/doc/org.texi
index 17b01c2..bc08277 100644
--- a/doc/org.texi
+++ b/doc/org.texi
@@ -10251,9 +10251,9 @@ understood by @code{format-time-string}.
@cindex time, macro
@cindex modification time, macro
These macros refer to the date and time when the document is exported and to
-the modification date and time of the file being exported, respectively.
-@var{FORMAT} should be a format string understood by
-@code{format-time-string}.
+the modification date, potentially found via version control, and time of the
+file being exported, respectively. @var{FORMAT} should be a format string
+understood by @code{format-time-string}.
@item @{@{@{input-file@}@}@}
@cindex input file, macro
diff --git a/etc/ORG-NEWS b/etc/ORG-NEWS
index 99241e2..c8b1627 100644
--- a/etc/ORG-NEWS
+++ b/etc/ORG-NEWS
@@ -104,7 +104,9 @@ is straightforward. For example
becomes
: ("pdf" . (lambda (file link) (foo)))
-
+*** ~{{{modification-time}}}~ tries to obtain time via =vc=
+As a fallback, the modification time will be found via the file
+system.
** New features
*** New org-protocol key=value syntax
diff --git a/lisp/org-macro.el b/lisp/org-macro.el
index 5e9be98..debe6b0 100644
--- a/lisp/org-macro.el
+++ b/lisp/org-macro.el
@@ -59,6 +59,9 @@
(declare-function org-mode "org" ())
(declare-function org-remove-double-quotes "org" (s))
(declare-function org-with-wide-buffer "org-macs" (&rest body))
+(declare-function vc-backend "vc-hooks" (f))
+(declare-function vc-call "vc-hooks" (&rest args))
+(declare-function vc-exec-after "vc-dispatcher" (code))
;;; Variables
@@ -148,7 +151,29 @@ function installs the following ones: \"property\",
(cons "modification-time"
(format "(eval (format-time-string \"$1\" '%s))"
(prin1-to-string
- (nth 5 (file-attributes visited-file)))))))))
+ (or
+ ;; First, check if file has a VC modification time.
+ (save-window-excursion
+ (when (vc-backend visited-file)
+ (let ((buf (get-buffer-create " *org-vc*"))
+ date)
+ (vc-call print-log visited-file buf nil nil 1)
+ (with-current-buffer buf
+ (vc-exec-after
+ (lambda ()
+ (goto-char (point-min))
+ (when (search-forward-regexp "Date:?[ \t]*" nil t)
+ (let ((time (parse-time-string
+ (buffer-substring
+ (point) (point-at-eol)))))
+ (when (org-some 'identity time)
+ (setq date (apply 'encode-time time))))))))
+ (let ((proc (get-buffer-process buf)))
+ (while (and proc (accept-process-output proc .5 nil t))))
+ (kill-buffer " *org-vc*")
+ date)))
+ ;; Otherwise use the time registered by the file system.
+ (nth 5 (file-attributes visited-file))))))))))
(setq org-macro-templates templates)))
(defun org-macro-expand (macro templates)
--
2.8.0
