This bug -- PROBLEM 2 -- is being reported on behalf of D. Paddy (I was unable to help solve the issue). D. Paddy writes: TWO (2) problems; for both I follow the GNU Emacs manual from "https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/emacs.html" PROBLEM 1: The following is quoted from page 91: "To search for non-ASCII characters, use one of the following methods: • Type C-q, followed by a non-graphic character or a sequence of octal digits." In my case I typed C-q, followed by 213 and then return (the enter key). Rather than searching, the octal character \213 is inserted into the file. PROBLEM 2: Vose conjectured that the manual was simply mistaken, and should have said something closer to: To search for an octal character, type C-s C-q, followed by a sequence of octal digits. In my case I typed C-s C-q, followed by 213 and then return (the enter key). Rather than searching, the message "Failing I-search: \213" was displayed (see attached screen shot). Vose suggested: M-x search-forward return C-q 213 return return but that likewise fails. Vose suggested: M-x find-file-literally, but the same problem occurs. If this is a feature of emacs or of the documentation, then please respond to the following plea for charity: exactly what buttons of the keyboard do I press to successfully search for octal 213 ? And if instead there is no problem because octal 213 is not really in the file after all -- dispite what the screenshot seems to indicate -- and so therefore searching for it *should fail*, then how do I change my .emacs file so that emacs will stop lying to me about file contents? As noted above, the same problem occurs with M-x find-file-literally, i.e., the buffer seems to contain octal 213 (same screen shot) but searching for it fails. Much obliged. D. Paddy P.S. The above was all using emacs -Q In GNU Emacs 24.4.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) of 2015-02-09 on blackbox Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11502000 Configured using: `configure --prefix=/usr --build=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --datadir=/usr/share --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var/lib --disable-dependency-tracking --disable-silent-rules --libdir=/usr/lib64 --program-suffix=-emacs-24 --infodir=/usr/share/info/emacs-24 --localstatedir=/var --enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp --with-gameuser=games --without-compress-install --with-file-notification=inotify --enable-acl --without-dbus --without-gnutls --without-gpm --without-hesiod --without-kerberos --without-kerberos5 --without-xml2 --without-selinux --without-wide-int --with-zlib --with-sound=no --with-x --without-ns --without-gconf --without-gsettings --without-toolkit-scroll-bars --with-gif --with-jpeg --with-png --with-rsvg --with-tiff --with-xpm --with-imagemagick --without-xft --without-libotf --without-m17n-flt --with-x-toolkit=no GENTOO_PACKAGE=app-editors/emacs-24.4-r1 'CFLAGS=-O2 -pipe -march=native' CPPFLAGS= 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed'' Important settings: value of $LANG: en_US.utf8 locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix Major mode: Fundamental Minor modes in effect: shell-dirtrack-mode: t tooltip-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Recent input: m p e g C-x b C-x C-s C-x k C-x b C-x k C-x b C-x k C-x b C-x b C-q 2 7 3 C-g C-g C-g C-g C-s C-q 2 7 3 C-g C-g C-g C-_ C-s C-q 2 7 2 C-g C-g C-g C-g C-s C-q 2 7 2 C-s C-x k C-x C-f v i d D o w n v f 7 v i y C-g C-x C-f D o w f e 7 q . C-s C-q 2 4 4 C-s C-g C-g C-g C-s C-q 2 4 4 C-g C-g C-s C-q \ 2 4 4 C-s M-< C-s C-q 2 1 3 C-g C-a C-n C-k C-a C-n C-k C-k C-k C-k C-k C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-_ C-a C-l C-n C-l C-a C-s C-q 2 1 3 M-< M-< C-x k C-s b u g s C-s C-s M-< Recent messages: Making completion list... Quit [3 times] Mark saved where search started Mark set byte-code: Beginning of buffer [2 times] Undo! [6 times] user-error: No further undo information [17 times] Mark set [2 times] Preparing tutorial ... Mark saved where search started Load-path shadows: None found. Features: (shadow sort gnus-util mail-extr emacsbug message format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils tutorial hexl eldoc help-fns mule-util help-mode easymenu ispell misearch multi-isearch tex-mode compile shell pcomplete comint ansi-color ring latexenc site-gentoo time-date tooltip electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel x-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process inotify dynamic-setting x multi-tty emacs) Memory information: ((conses 16 92178 45039) (symbols 48 19342 12) (miscs 40 94 665) (strings 32 14527 24688) (string-bytes 1 17114196) (vectors 16 16163) (vector-slots 8 1058778 186848) (floats 8 71 1128) (intervals 56 1097 969) (buffers 960 23) (heap 1024 70663 70634))