Sometimes I get stuck in the minibuffer

Sometimes I get stuck in the minibuffer

[Göktuğ Kayaalp]

Lately I’ve been encountering this weird behaviour where out of nowhere,
especially when switching buffers, the minibuffer will arrest focus, and
I have to use ‘other-window’ or similar to escape.  This is not when I’m
prompted anything, the focus remains in the empty minibuffer like in any
other buffer, and if I try ‘C-x b’, I get

    user error: Cannot switch buffers in minibuffer window

Because of this, I can’t switch buffers sometimes; when I hit C-x b,
when the relevant prompt appears, it tries to switch buffers in the
minibuffer window, leading to the above error.  I can’t ‘keyboard-quit’
my way out of this, because, while that does quit the prompt, I’m then
stuck in the minibuffer window, and I need to use window selection
commands like I said above to be able to leave.  Which works fine, but
then I can no longer use ‘switch-to-buffer’ in that frame without this
issue repeating, so I can’t switch buffers and lose my layout.

I use multiple windows to work on one buffer pretty often, with but
often without using follow mode, FWIW.

I can’t seem to trigger the debugger either.  When I turn debug-on-quit
on, keyboard-quit in the minibuffer doesn’t bring up the debugger.

Looking around, I see the following advice from git-gutter.el is defined
on switch-to-buffer:

(defadvice switch-to-buffer (after git-gutter:switch-to-buffer activate)
  (when git-gutter-mode
    (git-gutter)))

I have no reason to suspect that this is the cause.  Tho, for the above
reason and for the random nature of the issue, I haven’t been able to
debug nor spot a pattern, yet.

This started happening after one of my latest builds of the master
branch (I use weekly builds), tho I’m not sure when exactly this
started.  My entire init.el and other relevant files are available at
<https://github.com/cadadr/configuration/blob/default/emacs.d/init.el>.

If you know what the problem is or if you can tell me how I can debug
this, it’d be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

       -gk.

Re: Sometimes I get stuck in the minibuffer

[Gregory Heytings]

>
> Lately I’ve been encountering this weird behaviour where out of nowhere, 
> especially when switching buffers, the minibuffer will arrest focus, and 
> I have to use ‘other-window’ or similar to escape.  This is not when I’m 
> prompted anything, the focus remains in the empty minibuffer like in any 
> other buffer, and if I try ‘C-x b’, I get
>
>    user error: Cannot switch buffers in minibuffer window
>
> Because of this, I can’t switch buffers sometimes; when I hit C-x b, 
> when the relevant prompt appears, it tries to switch buffers in the 
> minibuffer window, leading to the above error.  I can’t ‘keyboard-quit’ 
> my way out of this, because, while that does quit the prompt, I’m then 
> stuck in the minibuffer window, and I need to use window selection 
> commands like I said above to be able to leave.  Which works fine, but 
> then I can no longer use ‘switch-to-buffer’ in that frame without this 
> issue repeating, so I can’t switch buffers and lose my layout.
>

Don't worry, this has nothing to with your configuration, it's because the 
minibuffer is currently being "improved".  "On n'arrete pas le progres !"

If you manage to create a reproductible recipe that triggers this bug, 
please M-x report-emacs-bug.

Re: Sometimes I get stuck in the minibuffer

[Stefan Monnier]

> Lately I’ve been encountering this weird behaviour where out of nowhere,
> especially when switching buffers, the minibuffer will arrest focus, and
> I have to use ‘other-window’ or similar to escape.  This is not when I’m
> prompted anything, the focus remains in the empty minibuffer like in any
> other buffer, and if I try ‘C-x b’, I get
>
>     user error: Cannot switch buffers in minibuffer window

This sounds like a manifestation of the same problem recently mentioned
by Thierry Volpiatto.  I recommend `M-x report-emacs-bug`.


        Stefan

Re: Sometimes I get stuck in the minibuffer

[William Xu]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> Lately I’ve been encountering this weird behaviour where out of nowhere,
>> especially when switching buffers, the minibuffer will arrest focus, and
>> I have to use ‘other-window’ or similar to escape.  This is not when I’m
>> prompted anything, the focus remains in the empty minibuffer like in any
>> other buffer, and if I try ‘C-x b’, I get
>>
>>     user error: Cannot switch buffers in minibuffer window
>
> This sounds like a manifestation of the same problem recently mentioned
> by Thierry Volpiatto.  I recommend `M-x report-emacs-bug`.

I think I encountered the same issue. But it is quite random, making it
difficult to reproduce. I'm using it on macOS. 

-- 
William

Re: Sometimes I get stuck in the minibuffer

[Stefan Monnier]

> I think I encountered the same issue. But it is quite random, making it
> difficult to reproduce. I'm using it on macOS. 

Reproducible bug reports are definitely much better, but don't let that
stop you from reporting the bug (or contributing your observations to
someone else's bug report) ;-)


        Stefan