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up vote 3 down vote favorite

Is there a (quick) way of resetting a variable to its default value (as defined in some .el file) after it has been modified? e.g. via commands in the .emacs file, without having to restart emacs.

Example: Set ispell-tex-skip-alists to the value as defined in `ispell.el' after modification.

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2  
Related: emacs.stackexchange.com/q/3022/50. (I've edited your title to not be a duplicate of it). –  Malabarba♦ 7 hours ago

2 Answers 2

up vote 3 down vote

No. Non-custom variables need not even have a default value.

Except if you mean a global value as opposed to a buffer-local value. In the case of a variable that has buffer-local values, yes, you can use function default-value to obtain its default value, and you can then use setq to set any buffer-local value to that default value. (You can also use set-default-value to change the default value.)

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up vote 1 down vote

It's possible if the variable was declared as a defcustom:

(eval (car (get 'ediff-split-window-function 'standard-value)))
;; => split-window-vertically

But ispell-tex-skip-alists was declared as defvar, so this isn't possible.

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1  
Technically, you can visit the variable definition and reevaluate it entirely with elisp code. –  Malabarba♦ 7 hours ago
    
True, but there's no introspection-style option. –  abo-abo 7 hours ago
    
The question explicitly asks about a non-custom variable. –  Drew 3 hours ago
2  
The question was edited two hours after I provided an answer. –  abo-abo 3 hours ago

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