emacs projectile - initialize project cache without git, hg, etc. repository

Question

I want setup the projectile project for project that has no local git, hg, bzr, etc. directories so I cannot use their repositories as source of project files. Is it enough to just create the .projectile file in the root directory and use the C-u C-c p f to refresh the cache. I've tried this and in my case it is not working (my .projectile is empty - shall I fill it with some rules?). What I would expect is the emacs/projectile to automatically index all my project, i.e. directory-by-directory, file-by-file, so I can make later quick search for the files.

Could you please give me some step-by-step hints ?

Thanks!

[--Update--]
This is an excerpt from my .emacs config file:

(require 'projectile)  
(projectile-global-mode)  
(setq projectile-indexing-method 'native)  
(setq projectile-enable-caching t)  

After the C-c p f sequence I'm asked by the "Find file:" prompt but the only file in the list is the .projectile file itself - none of the project files are displayed.

Preceptory

What values you have for projectile-enable-caching and projectile-indexing-method? The empty .projectile approach is valid. What happens when you hit C-c p f? – Homeless

@juanleon: I've updated the question above – Preceptory

Strange. That setups works for me. Does projectile-globally-ignored-directories or projectile-globally-ignored-files match the rest of the files? What versions of Emacs/projectile are you using (I assume you are using Windows, because of the native indexing method)? – Homeless

By the way, your .projectile is meant to remain empty; the cache is stored in a different place (file projectile.cache, on your ~/.emacs.d or similar) – Homeless

None of the projectile-globally-ignored-directories directories or projectile-globally-ignored-file files match any of the files/directories in my project. The project includes mainly (~99,9%) *.c, *.h and Makefiles – Preceptory

I'm running the whole stuff on Win7. Emacs ver. 24.3.1, projectile ver. 0.10.0. – Preceptory

By saying that the setup works for you, you mean that: 1) open the .projectile file in the projects' top-level dir 2) M-x projectile-find-file and starts to type the beginning of some filename from inside the project 3) that filename is being expanded to the full filename 4) you can open that file – Preceptory

Right. I started with exact same configuration and versions than you ("emacs -q" + your lines) and projectile-find-file is working as usual (I can complete and open all files in project). I use Linux, though. – Homeless

When Emacs is filling the cache with new data? At the beginning of the C-c p f sequence? – Preceptory

Exactly, if the cache is empty (or you use C-u) and projectile-enable-caching is not nil. You can check if the cache is empty by looking at projectile.cache file. – Homeless

Answer 1

Currently, I have found out that after you have created a .projectile file in the directory of your choice, projectile will only use it after you restart emacs from that directory.

The caching is working well.

Mo

Thank you, I tried seemingly everything but this did the job. Create the file, delete the project, quit emacs fully, start emacs, add the project. – Considering