Eager macro-expansion failure

Eager macro-expansion failure

[Evan Aad]

When I start Emacs from the terminal the following message appears:

Eager macro-expansion failure: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)
Eager macro-expansion failure: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)
Error loading autoloads: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)

Despite the message, the Emacs GUI shows up and seems to function
fine. However, I would like to resolve whatever issue it is that
causes this message to appear. I don't want this message appearing in
the terminal upon Emacs startup.

Further details:

1. I don't have an Init file.
2. OS: macOS Catalina, version 10.15.7
3. Emacs version: 28.2 (9.0)

Re: Eager macro-expansion failure

[Stefan Monnier via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor]

Evan Aad [2022-11-04 10:24:34] wrote:
> When I start Emacs from the terminal the following message appears:
> Eager macro-expansion failure: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)
> Eager macro-expansion failure: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)
> Error loading autoloads: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)

The above suggests something in one of your ELPA-installed packages is
using a macro passing it 2 arguments whereas the macro requires at least
3 args.


        Stefan

Re: Eager macro-expansion failure

[Evan Aad]

Progress at last, but I still need help on how to proceed from here.

After moving the .emacs.d directory to the Desktop, as I reported in
my last message, I restored it to its original location. I then
deleted the contents of its elpa subdirectory, not before copying this
subdirectory to the Desktop. I then proceeded to introduce the
packages from the copied elpa directory back to their original
location one by one, in alphabetical order. After each step I started
emacs and noted if the error message occurred. Sometimes I would get a
message that a certain dependency was missing, in which case I would
copy the corresponding dependency, breaking alphabetical order.

It came down to the point that almost all of the packages were
restored but two, and Emacs started without emitting the error
message. The two packages that were still unrestored were
helm-projectile, and its dependency projectile. When I now restored
the projectile package (before restoring the helm-projectile package),
the error message finally appeared.

So the culprit is the projectile package; specifically projectile-20180107.2233

Could anyone please help me proceed from here to resolve whatever
problem causes the error message?

Re: Eager macro-expansion failure

[Tassilo Horn]

Evan Aad <oddeveneven@gmail.com> writes:

Hi Evan,

I've not read the complete thread but I've seen errors like that from
time to time.  The problem seems to be incompatibilities in emacs
byte-code, e.g., byte-code produced by emacs version X is not compatible
with that produced by emacs version Y.  It should be compatible when X
is smaller than Y but not when it's the other way round.  So such
problems are to be expected especially when switching to a newer emacs
version, installing some package with it, and then switching back to
some older version.

Usually, those problems can be fixed by recompiling packages and there's
a new command `package-recompile-all' in the current development version
(going to be emacs 29) making that very easy to do.

> So the culprit is the projectile package; specifically
> projectile-20180107.2233

Is there a reason you are using such an ancient version?  Don't you
update your packages from time to time?  Again, the current emacs
development version has a nice `package-update-all' command making that
easy.

> Could anyone please help me proceed from here to resolve whatever
> problem causes the error message?

For the time being, you have to do M-x list-packages RET, hit U in the
packages buffer to mark updatable package, and then hit x to start the
update.  That will most probably also fix you issue as projectile is
certainly a package which has an updated version available.

But note that an update after 4 years might bring other surprises, of
course.

Bye,
Tassilo

Re: Eager macro-expansion failure

[Evan Aad]

Thanks Tassilo.

I've followed your advice and updated my list of packages. At the end
of the update the following message appeared in the very bottom of the
Emacs window:

> Wrong type argument: listp, async

What does this message mean? Does it indicate there's an issue that
requires resolution in order for Emacs to work properly and as
expected? If so, how can I resolve this issue?

> Hi Evan,
>
> I've not read the complete thread but I've seen errors like that from
> time to time.  The problem seems to be incompatibilities in emacs
> byte-code, e.g., byte-code produced by emacs version X is not compatible
> with that produced by emacs version Y.  It should be compatible when X
> is smaller than Y but not when it's the other way round.  So such
> problems are to be expected especially when switching to a newer emacs
> version, installing some package with it, and then switching back to
> some older version.
>
> Usually, those problems can be fixed by recompiling packages and there's
> a new command `package-recompile-all' in the current development version
> (going to be emacs 29) making that very easy to do.
>
> > So the culprit is the projectile package; specifically
> > projectile-20180107.2233
>
> Is there a reason you are using such an ancient version?  Don't you
> update your packages from time to time?  Again, the current emacs
> development version has a nice `package-update-all' command making that
> easy.
>
> > Could anyone please help me proceed from here to resolve whatever
> > problem causes the error message?
>
> For the time being, you have to do M-x list-packages RET, hit U in the
> packages buffer to mark updatable package, and then hit x to start the
> update.  That will most probably also fix you issue as projectile is
> certainly a package which has an updated version available.
>
> But note that an update after 4 years might bring other surprises, of
> course.
>
> Bye,
> Tassilo
>

Re: Eager macro-expansion failure

[Tassilo Horn]

Evan Aad <oddeveneven@gmail.com> writes:

Hi Evan,

> I've followed your advice and updated my list of packages. At the end
> of the update the following message appeared in the very bottom of the
> Emacs window:
>
>> Wrong type argument: listp, async

I've replied to your other mail

  "Wrong type argument: listp, async" after package update

so let's close this thread.

Bye,
Tassilo

Re: Eager macro-expansion failure

[Evan Aad]

Success! After updating the package list, the error message I reported
on at the beginning of this thread "Eager macro-expansion failure" was
resolved and doesn't appear any longer when I open Emacs.
Consequently, this thread can be closed with a status of "success".

On Mon, Nov 7, 2022 at 8:06 AM Tassilo Horn wrote:
>
> Evan Aad writes:
>
> Hi Evan,
>
> > I've followed your advice and updated my list of packages. At the end
> > of the update the following message appeared in the very bottom of the
> > Emacs window:
> >
> >> Wrong type argument: listp, async
>
> I've replied to your other mail
>
>   "Wrong type argument: listp, async" after package update
>
> so let's close this thread.
>
> Bye,
> Tassilo

Re: Eager macro-expansion failure

[Evan Aad]

Additional info:

When I move the .emacs.d directory from its original location (it's
original location is in ~) to the Desktop, the error message no longer
occurs.

Re: Eager macro-expansion failure

[Evan Aad]

More additional info:

When I run
> HOME=. emacs

the error message appears. However, when I run
> HOME=x emacs

where x is replaced by any one of the items on the list obtained by executing
> ls -a

e.g.
>HOME=. emacs.d emacs
>HOME=Desktop emacs
>HOME=Documents emacs
>HOME=Downloads emacs

the error message does not appear.

P.S.
As I've already mentioned in previous posts, the following files are
not listed when executing
> ls -a

.emacs, .emacs.el, init.el, default.el, site-start.el

Re: Eager macro-expansion failure

[Evan Aad]

Additional info:

When I start emacs with the following way:

> HOME=/tmp emacs

where "/tmp" is an empty directory I created, the error message does not occur.

Eager macro-expansion failure

[Evan Aad]

When I start Emacs from the terminal the following message appears:

Eager macro-expansion failure: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)
Eager macro-expansion failure: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)
Error loading autoloads: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)

Despite the message, the Emacs GUI shows up and seems to function
fine. However, I would like to resolve whatever issue it is that
causes this message to appear. I don't want this message appearing in
the terminal upon Emacs startup.

Further details:

1. I don't have an Init file.
2. OS: macOS Catalina, version 10.15.7
3. Emacs version: 28.2 (9.0)

Re: Eager macro-expansion failure

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Evan Aad <oddeveneven@gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2022 10:51:52 +0200
> 
> When I start Emacs from the terminal the following message appears:
> 
> Eager macro-expansion failure: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)
> Eager macro-expansion failure: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)
> Error loading autoloads: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)
> 
> Despite the message, the Emacs GUI shows up and seems to function
> fine. However, I would like to resolve whatever issue it is that
> causes this message to appear. I don't want this message appearing in
> the terminal upon Emacs startup.
> 
> Further details:
> 
> 1. I don't have an Init file.
> 2. OS: macOS Catalina, version 10.15.7
> 3. Emacs version: 28.2 (9.0)

Does this happen with "emacs -Q"?

Re: Eager macro-expansion failure

[Evan Aad]

No, this doesn't happen with "emacs -Q".

> > Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2022 10:51:52 +0200
> >
> > When I start Emacs from the terminal the following message appears:
> >
> > Eager macro-expansion failure: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)
> > Eager macro-expansion failure: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)
> > Error loading autoloads: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)
> >
> > Despite the message, the Emacs GUI shows up and seems to function
> > fine. However, I would like to resolve whatever issue it is that
> > causes this message to appear. I don't want this message appearing in
> > the terminal upon Emacs startup.
> >
> > Further details:
> >
> > 1. I don't have an Init file.
> > 2. OS: macOS Catalina, version 10.15.7
> > 3. Emacs version: 28.2 (9.0)
>
> Does this happen with "emacs -Q"?
>

Re: Eager macro-expansion failure

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Evan Aad <oddeveneven@gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2022 13:43:14 +0200
> 
> No, this doesn't happen with "emacs -Q".

Then the reason for the errors is in the site-init files your Emacs
loads at startup.  You should look at those site-init files and find
which one of them causes the problem.

Re: Eager macro-expansion failure

[Evan Aad]

There is no init file in any of the locations mentioned in the first
paragraph of the following article:
https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Init-File.html
or in the second and third paragraphs of the following article:
https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Find-Init.html

In other words, there is no file named ~/.emacs, ~/.emacs.el,
~/.emacs.d/init.el, ~/.config/emacs/init.el

Furthermore, my user-emacs-directory variable is set to ~/.emacs.d/
and there is no file named .emacs, .emacs.el, init.el, default.el or
site-start.el under this directory nor under the directories ~/ and
~/.config

Moreover, in the directory /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp there is
just a single item: a directory named libidn/ and inside it there are
just two items, named idna.el and punycode.el

Could there be an init file somewhere else? If so, is there an easy
way to find it? The value of my load-path variable is very long. It
would be very tedious to visit every directory listed there manually,
and I'm not savvy enough to write code to automate this task.

> > Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2022 13:43:14 +0200
> >
> > No, this doesn't happen with "emacs -Q".
>
> Then the reason for the errors is in the site-init files your Emacs
> loads at startup.  You should look at those site-init files and find
> which one of them causes the problem.
>

Re: Eager macro-expansion failure

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Evan Aad <oddeveneven@gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2022 15:12:43 +0200
> 
> There is no init file in any of the locations mentioned in the first
> paragraph of the following article:
> https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Init-File.html
> or in the second and third paragraphs of the following article:
> https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Find-Init.html
> 
> In other words, there is no file named ~/.emacs, ~/.emacs.el,
> ~/.emacs.d/init.el, ~/.config/emacs/init.el

I'm talking about site-init files, not your user-specific init files
(which you said you didn't have).

If there's a difference between "emacs -Q" and just "emacs", there
_must_ be some init file involved, and if you don't have user init
files, then there _must_ be some site-init file.

You need to examine your Emacs installation and the documentation of
the distro you use to find out where to look for these files.  Or,
failing that, tell here which distro you use, and someone will
probably be able to tell you where to look for site-init files.

> Furthermore, my user-emacs-directory variable is set to ~/.emacs.d/
> and there is no file named .emacs, .emacs.el, init.el, default.el or
> site-start.el under this directory nor under the directories ~/ and
> ~/.config
> 
> Moreover, in the directory /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp there is
> just a single item: a directory named libidn/ and inside it there are
> just two items, named idna.el and punycode.el
> 
> Could there be an init file somewhere else?

Yes.

> If so, is there an easy way to find it? The value of my load-path
> variable is very long. It would be very tedious to visit every
> directory listed there manually, and I'm not savvy enough to write
> code to automate this task.

Look for files named default.el or site-start.el in any of the
load-path directories.  A good starting point is in
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/.

Re: Eager macro-expansion failure

[Evan Aad]

> Look for files named default.el or site-start.el in any of the load-path directories.  A good starting point is in /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/.

My system has no emacs/ directory under /usr/share/
I searched my entire computer for files named default.el and
site-start.el, as well as for files or folders named site-init. The
searches came out empty handed.

> tell here which distro you use, and someone will probably be able to tell you where to look for site-init files.

I installed emacs by following the instructions given here:
https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/download.html#macos
namely, by executing "brew install --cask emacs" in the Terminal.

> The above suggests something in one of your ELPA-installed packages is using a macro passing it 2 arguments whereas the macro requires at least 3 args.

How can I find which macro and which ELPA-installed package is causing
the trouble?


> > Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2022 15:12:43 +0200
> >
> > There is no init file in any of the locations mentioned in the first
> > paragraph of the following article:
> > https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Init-File.html
> > or in the second and third paragraphs of the following article:
> > https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Find-Init.html
> >
> > In other words, there is no file named ~/.emacs, ~/.emacs.el,
> > ~/.emacs.d/init.el, ~/.config/emacs/init.el
>
> I'm talking about site-init files, not your user-specific init files
> (which you said you didn't have).
>
> If there's a difference between "emacs -Q" and just "emacs", there
> _must_ be some init file involved, and if you don't have user init
> files, then there _must_ be some site-init file.
>
> You need to examine your Emacs installation and the documentation of
> the distro you use to find out where to look for these files.  Or,
> failing that, tell here which distro you use, and someone will
> probably be able to tell you where to look for site-init files.
>
> > Furthermore, my user-emacs-directory variable is set to ~/.emacs.d/
> > and there is no file named .emacs, .emacs.el, init.el, default.el or
> > site-start.el under this directory nor under the directories ~/ and
> > ~/.config
> >
> > Moreover, in the directory /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp there is
> > just a single item: a directory named libidn/ and inside it there are
> > just two items, named idna.el and punycode.el
> >
> > Could there be an init file somewhere else?
>
> Yes.
>
> > If so, is there an easy way to find it? The value of my load-path
> > variable is very long. It would be very tedious to visit every
> > directory listed there manually, and I'm not savvy enough to write
> > code to automate this task.
>
> Look for files named default.el or site-start.el in any of the
> load-path directories.  A good starting point is in
> /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/.
>

Eager macro-expansion failure

[Evan Aad]

When I start Emacs from the terminal the following message appears:

Eager macro-expansion failure: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)
Eager macro-expansion failure: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)
Error loading autoloads: (wrong-number-of-arguments (3 . 4) 2)

Despite the message, the Emacs GUI shows up and seems to function
fine. However, I would like to resolve whatever issue it is that
causes this message to appear. I don't want this message appearing in
the terminal upon Emacs startup.

Further details:

1. I don't have an Init file.
2. OS: macOS Catalina, version 10.15.7
3. Emacs version: 28.2 (9.0)