Error message: 'Quit: "empty or unsupported pasteboard type"

Error message: 'Quit: "empty or unsupported pasteboard type"

[Jonathon McKitrick]

Emacs is suddenly complaining when I kill a line in any mode.  Not only does it complain when killing the line, but it will not yank after the line is killed.

I recently installed better-defaults, which I have since disabled.  I've never seen this error before, and have been running emacs 24.3 on OSX with no issues before this.

Re: Error message: 'Quit: "empty or unsupported pasteboard type"

[John Mastro]

Hi Jonathon,

> On Jun 13, 2014, at 4:46 AM, Jonathon McKitrick <jmckitrick@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Emacs is suddenly complaining when I kill a line in any mode.  Not only does it complain when killing the line, but it will not yank after the line is killed.


I think I've run into this before. 

Try putting this form in your init file:

(setq save-interprogram-paste-before-kill nil)

Best,

John

Re: Error message: 'Quit: "empty or unsupported pasteboard type"

[Stefan Monnier]

> Try putting this form in your init file:
> (setq save-interprogram-paste-before-kill nil)

This may work around the problem, but it won't fix the underlying cause.


        Stefan

Re: Error message: 'Quit: "empty or unsupported pasteboard type"

[Michael Heerdegen]

Jonathon McKitrick <jmckitrick@gmail.com> writes:

> Emacs is suddenly complaining when I kill a line in any mode.  Not
> only does it complain when killing the line, but it will not yank
> after the line is killed.
>
> I recently installed better-defaults, which I have since disabled.
> I've never seen this error before, and have been running emacs 24.3 on
> OSX with no issues before this.

Looking at the package, it is written in a very unhealthy way: all the
code is in one top level expression with an autoload cookie before it.
At the end that means that this package performs changes to your
settings even when you don't load it.

Dunno how you installed and "disabled" it, but it's better to get rid of
it.  If you like some of its settings, you can just copy them to your
init file.


Michael.

Re: Error message: 'Quit: "empty or unsupported pasteboard type"

[Jon Oddie]

 
> 
> Emacs is suddenly complaining when I kill a line in any mode.  Not
> only does it complain when killing the line, but it will not yank
> after the line is killed.

I have seen the same (or a very similar) problem on OS X too, after
setting `save-interprogram-paste-before-kill' to `t'.

It happens when nothing else has used the system clipboard yet, so I
generally saw it when Emacs is the first program used after login.
The issue seems to be that `ns-get-pasteboard', or rather the C subr
`ns-get-selection-internal' which it calls, raises a quit condition
instead of returning nil under these circumstances.  I don't know if
this is by design, but I have the following snippet in my init.el as a
workaround.  It converts the quit condition into a nil return value:

(when (eq window-system 'ns)
  (defadvice ns-get-pasteboard (around hack-empty-pasteboard compile activate)
    (condition-case err
        ad-do-it
      (quit (message "%s" (cadr err))
            nil))))

Should I raise a proper bug report for this?

Re: Error message: 'Quit: "empty or unsupported pasteboard type"

[Michael Heerdegen]

Jon Oddie <jonxfield@gmail.com> writes:

> Should I raise a proper bug report for this?

I think you should.  I don't see any reason why that behavior could be
intended.  Please include the information you described here.


Thanks,

Michael.

Re: Error message: 'Quit: "empty or unsupported pasteboard type"

[Jonathon McKitrick]

On Friday, June 13, 2014 9:27:25 AM UTC-4, John Mastro wrote:
> Hi Jonathon,
> 
> 
> 
> > On Jun 13, 2014, at 4:46 AM, Jonathon McKitrick <jmckitrick@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > 
> 
> > Emacs is suddenly complaining when I kill a line in any mode.  Not only does it complain when killing the line, but it will not yank after the line is killed.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I think I've run into this before. 
> 
> 
> 
> Try putting this form in your init file:
> 
> 
> 
> (setq save-interprogram-paste-before-kill nil)
> 
> 
> 
> Best,
> 
> 
> 
> John

That seemed to work, thanks!  I wonder why this error started happening suddenly?

Re: Error message: 'Quit: "empty or unsupported pasteboard type"

[Sebastian Wiesner]

Am 13.06.2014 um 15:37 schrieb Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>:

>> Try putting this form in your init file:
>> (setq save-interprogram-paste-before-kill nil)
> 
> This may work around the problem, but it won't fix the underlying cause.

The underlying issue is fixed in Emacs 24.4, see 
http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=15628

Re: Error message: 'Quit: "empty or unsupported pasteboard type"

[Sebastian Wiesner]

Am 19.06.2014 um 14:31 schrieb Jonathon McKitrick <jmckitrick@gmail.com>:

> On Friday, June 13, 2014 9:27:25 AM UTC-4, John Mastro wrote:
>> Hi Jonathon,
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Jun 13, 2014, at 4:46 AM, Jonathon McKitrick <jmckitrick@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>> 
>>> Emacs is suddenly complaining when I kill a line in any mode.  Not only does it complain when killing the line, but it will not yank after the line is killed.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I think I've run into this before. 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Try putting this form in your init file:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> (setq save-interprogram-paste-before-kill nil)
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> John
> 
> That seemed to work, thanks!  I wonder why this error started happening suddenly?

"save-interprogram-paste-before-kill“ is broken on OS X in Emacs 24.3 and below, but it is normally disabled, so the error does not normally occur.  By installing better-defaults however you indirectly enabled it, hence causing the issue to manifest.

You can also update to Emacs 24.4 pretest, where the issue is fixed.