Hi, I think I hit on a bug in GNU Emacs 24.0.95.1 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.24.10) of 2012-04-02. Recipe: cd /tmp echo -n rms > rms chmod u=r rms emacs -q eval: (setq require-final-newline 'visit) C-x C-f /tmp/rms RET There is a new buffer but no window displays it. The *Messages*-buffer contains `find-file-noselect-1: Buffer is read-only: #' Emacs tries to add a newline to the (read-only) buffer. Here's a quick fix: