bug#7557: 23.1; Flymake fails when used in conjunction with Tramp

[Kevin Montag <kmontag@gmail.com>]

When opening a remote PHP file using Tramp over SSH, a message box 
appears with the text "Flymake: Configuration error has occured while 
running (php -f index_flymake.php -l). Flymake will be switched OFF", 
and Flymake is not used.  If a copy of the file is opened locally, no 
message appears and Flymake works as expected.

Changing 'start-process' to 'start-file-process' in 
'flymake-start-syntax-check-process' of flymake.el (as suggested in 
http://groups.google.com/group/gnu.emacs.help/browse_thread/thread/dda14275ce2b8b02/d58b601f2b3be223) 
partially fixes the problem.  With this change, Flymake performs syntax 
checks on remote files without an error message - however, the buffer is 
marked as modified each time such a check is performed.


In GNU Emacs 23.1.1 (i486-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.20.0)
  of 2010-03-29 on rothera, modified by Debian
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.10900000
configured using `configure  '--build=i486-linux-gnu' 
'--host=i486-linux-gnu' '--prefix=/usr' '--sharedstatedir=/var/lib' 
'--libexecdir=/usr/lib' '--localstatedir=/var/lib' 
'--infodir=/usr/share/info' '--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--with-pop=yes' 
'--enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs23:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/23.1/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/23.1/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/23.1/leim' 
'--with-x=yes' '--with-x-toolkit=gtk' '--with-toolkit-scroll-bars' 
'build_alias=i486-linux-gnu' 'host_alias=i486-linux-gnu' 
'CFLAGS=-DDEBIAN -g -O2' 'LDFLAGS=-g' 'CPPFLAGS=''

Important settings:
   value of $LC_ALL: nil
   value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
   value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
   value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
   value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
   value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
   value of $LC_TIME: nil
   value of $LANG: en_US.utf8
   value of $XMODIFIERS: nil
   locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix
   default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: PHP

Minor modes in effect:
   shell-dirtrack-mode: t
   global-auto-complete-mode: t
   auto-complete-mode: t
   show-paren-mode: t
   tooltip-mode: t
   tool-bar-mode: t
   mouse-wheel-mode: t
   menu-bar-mode: t
   file-name-shadow-mode: t
   global-font-lock-mode: t
   font-lock-mode: t
   blink-cursor-mode: t
   global-auto-composition-mode: t
   auto-composition-mode: t
   auto-encryption-mode: t
   auto-compression-mode: t
   line-number-mode: t
   transient-mark-mode: t
   abbrev-mode: t

Recent input:
C-x C-f <backspace> <backspace> / h e a r a s a y <backspace>
<backspace> <backspace> <backspace> s a y : / h o m
e / k e <tab> p u <tab> h e <tab> - <tab> i n d <tab>
<return> SPC SPC SPC SPC SPC SPC <backspace> <backspace>
<backspace> <backspace> <backspace> M-x r e p o <tab>
r <tab> <return>

Recent messages:
Loading tramp...done
Tramp: Opening connection for hearsay using scp...
Tramp: Waiting 60s for local shell to come up...
Tramp: Sending command `ssh hearsay   -q -e none && exit || exit'
Tramp: Waiting for prompts from remote shell
Tramp: Found remote shell prompt on `hearsay'
Wrote /tmp/tramp.7407ZEV.php
index.php has auto save data; consider M-x recover-this-file
Loading vc-hg...done
Making completion list...