Re: Can we expand the valid location of "Local Variables" ?

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  >   > Specifying another file has a serious problem: you can't be sure
  >   > which file will get included.

  > It'd be no more problematic than any other facility that supports including
  > sub-files, for example texinfo.

It is problematic because this inclusion would take place in the mere
act of visiting a file.  That is more sensitive than things that get
included when you _compile_ the file.

  > Wait, here's another idea from the crazy-dept.  Use a hash, like a md5
  > or sha1 or some such of the file to be included.  Before the inclusion,
  > check the hash, error out if there's a mismatch.

  >         Local variables:
  >         @include-hash: f31785c629584f30116ff45aa681fa5318613fd9
  >         @include: FILENAME
  >         End:

That would make it safer, but you'd have to edit the file whenever
you change what you include.

I think it is better to achieve the desired safety by putting those
settings in the file itself, with something to say "search further back".

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)