Give better error messages when trying to load non-existent symlinks

* files.el (after-find-file): Give a better error message when
trying to find a symlink that points to a file that doesn't exist
(bug#4398).

2 files changed, 9 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/lisp/ChangeLog b/lisp/ChangeLog
index 4d75309e905..19c80a65888 100644
--- a/lisp/ChangeLog
+++ b/lisp/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 2011-07-12  Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen  <larsi@gnus.org>
 
+        * files.el (after-find-file): Give a better error message when
+        trying to find a symlink that points to a file that doesn't exist
+        (bug#4398).
+
         * progmodes/cc-vars.el: Remove (probably) misleading comment
         (bug#4396).
 
diff --git a/lisp/files.el b/lisp/files.el
index 1071adb6967..bf38ce39a07 100644
--- a/lisp/files.el
+++ b/lisp/files.el
@@ -2060,7 +2060,11 @@ unless NOMODES is non-nil."
              ((not warn) nil)
              ((and error (file-attributes buffer-file-name))
               (setq buffer-read-only t)
-              "File exists, but cannot be read")
+              (if (and (file-symlink-p buffer-file-name)
+                       (not (file-exists-p
+                             (file-chase-links buffer-file-name))))
+                  "Symbolic link that points to nonexistent file"
+                "File exists, but cannot be read"))
              ((not buffer-read-only)
               (if (and warn
                        ;; No need to warn if buffer is auto-saved