A part of the diff from CVS.

Check whether a file needs a handler to be opened

for absolute filenames, too. (E.g., absolute compressed

need a handler.)

There is also another patch for the same place, not yet

in the CVS, but in the ALT's pkg: 

use-handler-for-load-of-suffixed.patch

===================================================================

RCS file: /cvsroot/emacs/emacs/src/lread.c,v

retrieving revision 1.257

retrieving revision 1.258

diff -u -r1.257 -r1.258

--- emacs/src/lread.c	2001/10/05 09:49:16	1.257

+++ emacs/src/lread.c	2001/10/12 03:18:05	1.258

@@ -646,13 +646,19 @@

   CHECK_STRING (file, 0);

   /* If file name is magic, call the handler.  */

-  handler = Ffind_file_name_handler (file, Qload);

-  if (!NILP (handler))

-    return call5 (handler, Qload, file, noerror, nomessage, nosuffix);

+  /* This shouldn't be necessary any more now that `openp' handles it right.

+    handler = Ffind_file_name_handler (file, Qload);

+    if (!NILP (handler))

+      return call5 (handler, Qload, file, noerror, nomessage, nosuffix); */

   /* Do this after the handler to avoid

      the need to gcpro noerror, nomessage and nosuffix.

-     (Below here, we care only whether they are nil or not.)  */

+     (Below here, we care only whether they are nil or not.)

+     The presence of this call is the result of a historical accident:

+     it used to be in every file-operations and when it got removed

+     everywhere, it accidentally stayed here.  Since then, enough people

+     supposedly have things like (load "$PROJECT/foo.el") in their .emacs

+     that it seemed risky to remove.  */

   file = Fsubstitute_in_file_name (file);

   /* Avoid weird lossage with null string as arg,

@@ -1009,13 +1024,17 @@

 	  if (lsuffix != 0)  /* Bug happens on CCI if lsuffix is 0.  */

 	    strncat (fn, nsuffix, lsuffix);

 	  /* Check that the file exists and is not a directory.  */

-	  if (absolute)

-	    handler = Qnil;

-	  else

-	    handler = Ffind_file_name_handler (filename, Qfile_exists_p);

-	  if (! NILP (handler) && ! exec_only)

+	  /* We used to only check for handlers on non-absolute file names:

+	        if (absolute)

+	          handler = Qnil;

+	        else

+		  handler = Ffind_file_name_handler (filename, Qfile_exists_p);

+	     It's not clear why that was the case and it breaks things like

+	     (load "/bar.el") where the file is actually "/bar.el.gz".  */

+	  handler = Ffind_file_name_handler (filename, Qfile_exists_p);

+	  if (!NILP (handler) && !exec_only)

 	    {

 	      int exists;

 	      string = build_string (fn);