bug#18431: 24.3; emacsclient spurious error message

bug#18431: 24.3; emacsclient spurious error message

[Rustom Mody]

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Please describe exactly what actions triggered the bug, and
the precise symptoms of the bug.  If you can, give a recipe
starting from `emacs -Q':

Say I dont have emacs running and call emacsclient as follows:

$ emacsclient --alternate-editor emacs foo.txt

Error (warning) message as follows is given:

emacsclient: can't find socket; have you started the server?
To start the server in Emacs, type "M-x server-start".

After printing which, it starts ok, editing the file!!

It seems to me this message should not come if --alternate-editor is
supplied.

If Emacs crashed, and you have the Emacs process in the gdb debugger,
please include the output from the following gdb commands:
    `bt full' and `xbacktrace'.
For information about debugging Emacs, please read the file
/usr/share/emacs/24.3/etc/DEBUG.


In GNU Emacs 24.3.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.12.2)
 of 2014-06-06 on barber, modified by Debian
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11600000
System Description:    Debian GNU/Linux testing (jessie)

Configured using:
 `configure '--build' 'x86_64-linux-gnu' '--build' 'x86_64-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/emacs24:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/24.3/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/24.3/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp'
 '--with-crt-dir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu' '--with-x=yes'
 '--with-x-toolkit=gtk3' '--with-toolkit-scroll-bars'
 'build_alias=x86_64-linux-gnu' 'CFLAGS=-g -O2 -fstack-protector
 --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wall'
 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-z,relro' 'CPPFLAGS=-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2''

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix
  default enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
  tooltip-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  tool-bar-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  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-x r e p o r t <tab> <return>

Recent messages:
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.

Load-path shadows:
None found.

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font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit x multi-tty emacs)

bug#18431: 24.3; emacsclient spurious error message

[Glenn Morris]

Rustom Mody wrote:

> Error (warning) message as follows is given:
>
> emacsclient: can't find socket; have you started the server?
> To start the server in Emacs, type "M-x server-start".
>
> After printing which, it starts ok, editing the file!!

It it is letting you know that it tried to contact an existing Emacs
instance but failed, and it shares the message text with the non
--alternate-editor case. Yes, the message could be special-cased for
--alternate-editor, but it doesn't seem like a big deal.

bug#18431: 24.3; emacsclient spurious error message

[Rustom Mody]

On Tue, Sep 9, 2014 at 9:20 PM, Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> wrote:
> Rustom Mody wrote:
>
>> Error (warning) message as follows is given:
>>
>> emacsclient: can't find socket; have you started the server?
>> To start the server in Emacs, type "M-x server-start".
>>
>> After printing which, it starts ok, editing the file!!
>
> It it is letting you know that it tried to contact an existing Emacs
> instance but failed, and it shares the message text with the non
> --alternate-editor case. Yes, the message could be special-cased for
> --alternate-editor, but it doesn't seem like a big deal.

Sure its minor.
Nevertheless its a bogus error message.
Also as you say the messages are shared; they are not the same:

Without alternate
$ emacsclient foo
emacsclient: can't find socket; have you started the server?
To start the server in Emacs, type "M-x server-start".
emacsclient: No socket or alternate editor.  Please use:

    --socket-name
    --server-file      (or environment variable EMACS_SERVER_FILE)
    --alternate-editor (or environment variable ALTERNATE_EDITOR)

With alternate
$ emacsclient -a emacs foo
emacsclient: can't find socket; have you started the server?
To start the server in Emacs, type "M-x server-start".


In any case thanks for working on emacs and yeah its not a big deal!
Rusi

bug#18431: 24.3; emacsclient spurious error message

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> writes:

> Say I dont have emacs running and call emacsclient as follows:
>
> $ emacsclient --alternate-editor emacs foo.txt
>
> Error (warning) message as follows is given:
>
> emacsclient: can't find socket; have you started the server?
> To start the server in Emacs, type "M-x server-start".
>
> After printing which, it starts ok, editing the file!!

This has been changed in Emacs 28 -- if you say -q --alternate-editor,
it'll no longer output that message.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no