It seems that EFS attaches dired-handler-fn as a handler for file-local-copy to every local file: (find-file-name-handler "/tmp/foo" 'file-local-copy) I believe this is an illegitimate use, because by definition such a handler is supposed to help make a local copy of a file. It is not supposed to be used for every imaginable hack. In EFS it is used to update the Dired buffer, which has nothing to do with making local copies. The problem is that this (what I believe illegitimate) use has the potential to confuse other packages (and it does cause hickups to Ediff; it probably would confuse trump.el or cause problems porting it to XEmacs). --michael