emacs: is before-save-hook a local variable?

Question

how would I figure this out?

I added delete-trailing-whitespace to the before-save-hook in my c-mode-common-hook, but it loo

Answer 1

Yes create a .dir-locals.el file in your project root directory with this contents:

((c-mode . ((before-save-hook . (lambda() (delete-trailing-whitespace)) )) ))

This will add this hook only to c-mode buffers below this directory.

But if you only want a specific file and not a whole directory you should be able to add this to top of file using File Local Variables:

-*- eval: (setq before-save-hook (lambda() (delete-trailing-whitespace))); -*-

or bottom of file like this:

;;; Local Variables: ***
;;; eval: (setq before-save-hook (lambda() (delete-trailing-whitespace))) ***
;;; End: ***