shell-pop-default-directory changes buffer default-directory

[dwrz]

When I invoke shell-pop, it changes the default-directory of the current buffer to shell-pop-default-directory.

Is it possible to just have shell-pop-default-directory apply to the pop up shell, and not to the previously selected buffer?

This is with Emacs 26.2 on Linux 5.2.5, x86_64.

Following is my config:

(use-package shell-pop
  :bind (("C-s-t" . shell-pop)
         ("C-x t" . shell-pop))
  :ensure t
  :custom
  (shell-pop-shell-type
   '("eshell" "*eshell*" (lambda nil (interactive) (eshell))))
  :config
  (setq shell-pop-window-size 30)
  (setq shell-pop-full-span nil)
  (setq shell-pop-default-directory "~")
  (setq shell-pop-universal-key "C-s-t")
  (setq shell-pop-window-position "bottom")
  (setq shell-pop-in-after-hook 'end-of-buffer))

[prasoon2211]

Sorry to revive the dead thread. @dwrz did you find a fix for this perhaps?

[dwrz]

@prasoon2211 Sorry, I no longer use shell-pop. I vaguely recall this issue wasn't just due to shell-pop, but I'm not very sure.

[SirVolta]

@prasoon2211 I've had this issue too. It seems to be fixable by advising #'shell-pop--cd-to-cwd-eshell to only run in eshell buffers and only auto-cd when necessary. I've also had to work around another, possibly related, bug involving the buffer directory not being detected properly. Taking the directory part of buffer-file-name seems to work much better then default-directory. With these workarounds shell-pop works well for me using Emacs 27.1 on Debian.

(defun sv/fixed-shell-pop--cd-to-cwd-eshell (cwd)
  (if (string= major-mode "eshell-mode")
      t
    (message "Trying to set eshell CWD (%s) outside of eshell!" cwd)
    nil))

(advice-add 'shell-pop--cd-to-cwd-eshell :before-while #'sv/fixed-shell-pop--cd-to-cwd-eshell)

(defun sv/shell-pop (arg)
  (interactive "P")
  (let ((default-directory
          (or (file-name-directory (or (buffer-file-name) "")) default-directory))
        (shell-pop-autocd-to-working-dir (stringp (buffer-file-name))))
    (shell-pop arg)))

(define-key xah-fly-leader-key-map (kbd "z") #'sv/shell-pop)

config:

(setq shell-pop-default-directory (expand-file-name "~")
      shell-pop-shell-type  '("eshell" "*eshell*" (lambda () (eshell)))
      shell-pop-universal-key nil
      shell-pop-window-size 30
      shell-pop-full-span t
      shell-pop-autocd-to-working-dir t
      shell-pop-window-position "bottom")

[gabberdancecat]

I found the issue to be problematic when running shell-pop while in an org file with code blocks. If a code block tangles to a relative path, for example #+begin_src :tangle ./setup, and it intends to tangle to /home/user/code/project1/setup, after running shell-pop, it would try to tangle to /home/user/setup instead, as the default-directory would've changed from /home/user/code/project1/ to /home/user/.

I haven't tried @SirVolta's solution yet, but i might just use popper.el instead, which can turn any buffer into a pop-up window, so i'll use that and script together a makeshift pop-up terminal instead.

Update: the package multi-term provides a command to create a dedicated pop-up terminal window (multi-term-dedicated-toggle), just like shell-pop does. There's another called multi-vterm, which only supports vterm (I'm assuming this had to be created because of compatibility issues between vterm and multi-term). I've tried multi-vterm and it works great, but multi-term, the original, doesn't work as well as shell-pop, nor does it support eshell...