Re: Invalid read syntax: ")"

[Jean-Christophe Helary <jean.christophe.helary@gmail.com>]

> On May 7, 2018, at 1:03, Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com <mailto:drew.adams@oracle.com>> wrote:
> 
>>>> I have an Invalid read syntax: ")" when I start emacs.
>>>> Any idea how to diagnose that ?
>>> 
>>> "emacs --debug-init"
>>> That will at least show you which file the problem is in
>> 
>> But what I get is:
>> $ emacs --debug-init
>> Invalid read syntax: ")"
> 
> As Oscar suggested, _bisect your init file_ to find the
> culprit.  This a binary search, so it is quick, even if
> it does not seem so at first.

I understand what a binary search is, but I was first wondering if among the hundreds of thousands of functions in emacs, there would not be one that does the trick. Like actually giving the expression that is not properly closed. If a manual binary search can do it, surely an automatic binary search (if one ought to exist) can...

Also, the man page says about emacs --debug-init:

      -debug-init
               Enable Emacs Lisp debugger during the processing  of  the  user
               init  file  ~/.emacs.  This is useful for debugging problems in
               the init file.

If the only information it gives in that case is the same as when running "emacs", I don't find that particularly useful.

Ok, so on with the binary search.


Jean-Christophe Helary
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