This is a regression introduced in Emacs 26.1 - no problem before that. emacs -Q 1. In a Dired buffer (directory `toto', say) create a subdir `foo', mark two files in `toto', and then use `C' to copy those two files from `toto' to `foo'. 2. Use `M' with `a-w' to make the copies in `foo' read-only. 3. Turn on `debug-on-error'. 4. In `toto', use `C' again to try to copy the same marked files. Let's say that the first file to copy is `a'. You see this prompt: Overwrite `/the/path/to/toto/foo/a'? [Type yn!q or C-h] Use `C-h' to try to see the key help. This happens: `help-form-show' raises an error: (void-variable to). It seems like the "to" in the prompt is being evaluated as a variable. Perhaps there is a missing quote somewhere. You can no longer use any keys at this point, including mouse actions. (Except you can use `q' to quit the debugger.) Because I cannot use keys at that point I cannot select the text in the debugger to show it. Instead, see attached screenshot (file names redacted). In GNU Emacs 26.1 (build 1, x86_64-w64-mingw32) of 2018-05-30 Repository revision: 07f8f9bc5a51f5aa94eb099f3e15fbe0c20ea1ea Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 10.0.16299 Configured using: `configure --without-dbus --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --without-compress-install 'CFLAGS=-O2 -static -g3''