Homepage: https://github.com/purcell/inheritenv
Author: Steve Purcell
Updated:
Make temp buffers inherit buffer-local environment variables
Environment variables in Emacs can be set buffer-locally, like many Emacs preferences, which allows users to have different buffer-local paths for executables in different projects, specified by a ".dir-locals.el" file or via a "direnv" integration like envrc (see https://github.com/purcell/envrc). However, there's a fairly common pitfall when Emacs libraries run background processes on behalf of a user: many such libraries run processes in temporary buffers that do not inherit the calling buffer's environment. This can result in executables not being found, or the wrong versions of executables being picked up. An example is the Emacs built-in command `shell-command-to-string'. Whatever buffer-local `process-environment' (or `exec-path') the user has set, that command will always use the Emacs-wide default. This is *specified* behaviour, but not *expected* or *helpful*. `inheritenv' provides a couple of tools for dealing with this issue: 1. Library authors can wrap code that plans to execute processes in temporary buffers with the `inheritenv' macro. 2. End users can modify commands like `shell-command-to-string' using the `inheritenv-add-advice' macro.