From 7757fc171927a4189901ba56bad167688a145b0e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ivan Malison <IvanMalison@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2026 22:42:50 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] emacs: retangle org config when any generated file is stale

---
 dotfiles/emacs.d/README.org     | 25 ++++++++++++++++++++-----
 dotfiles/emacs.d/org-config.org |  5 ++++-
 2 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/dotfiles/emacs.d/README.org b/dotfiles/emacs.d/README.org
index 9c0b45c3..a4df355d 100644
--- a/dotfiles/emacs.d/README.org
+++ b/dotfiles/emacs.d/README.org
@@ -2950,11 +2950,26 @@ My org-mode configuration now lives in its own file org-config.org.
 #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
 (let* ((org-config (expand-file-name "org-config.org" user-emacs-directory))
        (org-config-el (expand-file-name "org-config.el" user-emacs-directory)))
-  (when (file-newer-than-file-p org-config org-config-el)
-    ;; Tangle all outputs so org-config-bind.el/org-config-config.el are fresh.
-    (org-babel-tangle-file org-config)
-    (when (file-exists-p org-config-el)
-      (set-file-times org-config-el)))
+  (let* ((outputs (mapcar (lambda (f) (expand-file-name f user-emacs-directory))
+                          '("org-config.el"
+                            "org-config-preface.el"
+                            "org-config-custom.el"
+                            "org-config-bind.el"
+                            "org-config-config.el")))
+         (needs-tangle nil))
+    ;; Tangle if any output is missing or stale. This is more robust than only
+    ;; checking org-config.el, since tangling can update some outputs without
+    ;; touching org-config.el's contents.
+    (dolist (f outputs)
+      (when (or (not (file-exists-p f))
+                (file-newer-than-file-p org-config f))
+        (setq needs-tangle t)))
+    (when needs-tangle
+      (org-babel-tangle-file org-config)
+      ;; Prevent re-tangling on every startup when files are unchanged.
+      (dolist (f outputs)
+        (when (file-exists-p f)
+          (set-file-times f)))))
   (load-file org-config-el))
 #+END_SRC
 *** TeX
diff --git a/dotfiles/emacs.d/org-config.org b/dotfiles/emacs.d/org-config.org
index 54b2fe63..f5fca237 100644
--- a/dotfiles/emacs.d/org-config.org
+++ b/dotfiles/emacs.d/org-config.org
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+#+PROPERTY: header-args:emacs-lisp :tangle org-config-config.el
+
 * include-file-as-forms
 We're going to use this to write separate parts of our config to different sections that will then be provided to our use package statment
 #+begin_src emacs-lisp :tangle org-config.el
@@ -775,7 +777,8 @@ SCHEDULED: %^t
    'org-babel-load-languages '((mermaid . t))))
 #+end_src
 ** frame-mode handling
-Note that this does not go into org-config-config.el. This is on purpose
+This block is part of the runtime config. It is tangled via the default
+`header-args:emacs-lisp` for this file (see the `#+PROPERTY` near the top).
 #+begin_src emacs-lisp
 (use-package org
   :ensure nil