Emacs doesn't load .emacs

Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Hendrik Bilges]

Hi,

I just started to use emacs. I'm using it on ubuntu. I created a .emacs
file in ~/, but Emacs won't load it. Just for checking I put this text
into the file:

(display-time)

If I load the file manually after startup, the time is displayed in the
status bar, but not before. I already checked if Emacs knows HOME, there
is no problem with that.

Thanks for any help,
Hendrik

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Robert Thorpe]

Hendrik Bilges wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I just started to use emacs. I'm using it on ubuntu. I created a .emacs
> file in ~/, but Emacs won't load it. Just for checking I put this text
> into the file:
>
> (display-time)
>
> If I load the file manually after startup, the time is displayed in the
> status bar, but not before. I already checked if Emacs knows HOME, there
> is no problem with that.

That's a very odd problem.

Five possibilities:-
* Somewhere else in the .emacs file you have a misplaced paren or
comment opener causing (display-time) not be evaluated
* The filename of the file you've created is not quite ".emacs",
perhaps the "." is in a strange character set
* Ubuntu does something strange like renaming what .emacs should be
called (SUSE used to do this)
* The emacs you have is very broken
* The linux distro you have is very broken

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Hendrik Bilges]

> Five possibilities:-
> * Somewhere else in the .emacs file you have a misplaced paren or
> comment opener causing (display-time) not be evaluated
> * The filename of the file you've created is not quite ".emacs",
> perhaps the "." is in a strange character set
> * Ubuntu does something strange like renaming what .emacs should be
> called (SUSE used to do this)
> * The emacs you have is very broken
> * The linux distro you have is very broken

I found out that for some unknown reason emacs was invoked with the -q
option that prevents loading of the configuration file. I simply
reinstalled emacs and now everything is fine.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Hendrik Bilges]

> I found out that for some unknown reason emacs was invoked with the -q
> option that prevents loading of the configuration file. I simply
> reinstalled emacs and now everything is fine.

I have to correct myself. After installation there is no ~/.emacs yet. If
I change an option in emacs and choose to save it, it is written. Fine so
far. If I restart emacs and try to save options a second time, it shows me
a message stating that it was invoked with -q option and that saving would
override existing configuration.

If I replace the generated .emacs with the file mentioned before,
containing only "(display-time)", it won't get loaded - the time is not
shown in the status bar.

Any ideas on this?

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Lowell Gilbert]

"Hendrik Bilges" <VZQNVPETFXMY@spammotel.com> writes:

>> I found out that for some unknown reason emacs was invoked with the -q
>> option that prevents loading of the configuration file. I simply
>> reinstalled emacs and now everything is fine.
>
> I have to correct myself. After installation there is no ~/.emacs yet. If
> I change an option in emacs and choose to save it, it is written. Fine so
> far. If I restart emacs and try to save options a second time, it shows me
> a message stating that it was invoked with -q option and that saving would
> override existing configuration.
>
> If I replace the generated .emacs with the file mentioned before,
> containing only "(display-time)", it won't get loaded - the time is not
> shown in the status bar.
>
> Any ideas on this?

The purpose of the -q option is to ignore the configuration file.  Why
are you using that option?

Or is the problem that you aren't intending to use that option, and
don't know how it is getting set?  In that case, you need to look at
how you are invoking emacs, and see where the option is creeping in.

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Hendrik Bilges]

Am Thu, 02 Nov 2006 09:17:02 -0500 schrieb Lowell Gilbert:

> Or is the problem that you aren't intending to use that option, and
> don't know how it is getting set?  In that case, you need to look at
> how you are invoking emacs, and see where the option is creeping in.

Yes, that is the problem. I checked 

$ alias
alias ls='ls --color=auto'

and then

$ type emacs
tux69_ emacs is /usr/bin/emacs
file /usr/bin/emacs
/usr/bin/emacs: symbolic link to `/etc/alternatives/emacs'
$ file /etc/alternatives/emacs
/etc/alternatives/emacs: symbolic link to `/usr/bin/emacs21-x'
$ file /usr/bin/emacs21-x
/usr/bin/emacs21-x: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1
(SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.2.0, dynamically linked (uses shared libs),
stripped

I now have no more clue what to look for.

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 02.11.2006 um 15:29 schrieb Hendrik Bilges:

> I now have no more clue what to look for.

Fedora Core 5?

--
Mit friedvollen Grüßen

   Pete

The future will be much better tomorrow.
                                -- George W. Bush

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 02.11.2006 um 15:29 schrieb Hendrik Bilges:

> I now have no more clue what to look for.

Create a little Elisp file with this contents:

(defadvice load (before debug-log activate)
   (message "(Tipp von Kai G) Lade jetzt: %s" (ad-get-arg 0)))

and then invoke GNU Emacs with: emacs -l <that elisp file name> &

It should show which files are loaded. In *Messages*. This can be  
saved to a regular file. When GNU Emacs does some options saving into  
files, then the original version of the saved *Messages* on disk will  
get changed and you have in file~ information of what happened when  
you quit and could finish to read.

--
Mit evolutionären Grüßen

   Pete


"Evolution"            o           __o                     _o _
           °\___o      /0~         -\<,              ^\___ /=\\_/-%
oo~_______ /\ /\______/ \_________O/ O_______________o===>-->O--o____

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Martin Jost]

"Hendrik Bilges" <VZQNVPETFXMY@spammotel.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:4quaviFops3pU3@individual.net...
> I have to correct myself. After installation there is no ~/.emacs yet. If
> I change an option in emacs and choose to save it, it is written. Fine so
> far. If I restart emacs and try to save options a second time, it shows me
> a message stating that it was invoked with -q option and that saving would
> override existing configuration.

There might also be a trivial explanation:
Further startup-code simply erased your output in the status line !
So have a look in the buffer "*Messages*". Probably, you find your output
there.
(I would consider any distribution, which breaks basic emacs featues (like
.emacs) by misfeatures in a site-start as seriously broken...)

If no, ...from the info file for emacs:
Your site may also have a "site startup file"; this is named
`site-start.el', if it exists.  Like `default.el', Emacs finds this
file via the standard search path for Lisp libraries.  Emacs loads this
library before it loads your init file.  To inhibit loading of this
library, use the option `-no-site-file'.

My comments on it:
So -no-site-file might be a try.
If you want to hunt down a site-start.el, You can use the command
"describe-variable" to get the value of the variable "load-path" (this is
the mentioned standard search path for Lisp libraries) You will get
somehting like this:

load-path's value is
(""/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/21.4/site-lisp"
"/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/site-lisp" "/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/21.4/leim"
"/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/21.4/lisp"
....

HTH - and keep trying, emacs definitely is worth it !

Martin

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Hendrik Bilges]

Am Thu, 02 Nov 2006 16:22:53 +0100 schrieb Martin Jost:
Hi Martin,

> So -no-site-file might be a try.

You were right :)

> If you want to hunt down a site-start.el, You can use the command
> "describe-variable" to get the value of the variable "load-path" (this is
> the mentioned standard search path for Lisp libraries) You will get
> somehting like this:
> 
> load-path's value is
> (""/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/21.4/site-lisp"
> "/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/site-lisp" "/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/21.4/leim"
> "/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/21.4/lisp"

$ locate site-start.el
/etc/emacs/site-start.el

$ less /etc/emacs/site-start.el
load "auctex.el" nil t t
load "preview-latex.el" nil t t

There doesn't seem to be anything suspicious, hmm? May be in some of
those other files?:

$ locate *start*.el
/etc/emacs/site-start.d/50dictionaries-common.el
/etc/emacs/site-start.d/50autoconf.el
/etc/emacs/site-start.d/00debian-vars.el
/etc/emacs/site-start.d/50preview-latex.el
/etc/emacs/site-start.d/51preview-latex.el
/etc/emacs/site-start.el
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/debian-startup.el
/usr/share/emacs/21.4/lisp/cus-start.el

I'm still beginning to understand these Lisp files, so I could need some
help. I uploaded the codes of

/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/debian-startup.el
here: http://phpfi.com/170290

/etc/emacs/site-start.d/50autoconf.el here: http://phpfi.com/170291

/usr/share/emacs/21.4/lisp/cus-start.el here: http://phpfi.com/170296

> HTH - and keep trying, emacs definitely is worth it !

If I wouldn't believe that I would have given up a couple of hours ago ;-)

Thank you all for your help so far!

Hendrik

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Hendrik Bilges]

I just noticed that I didn't clarify my problem now: It works using the
option `-no-site-file', but not without, and I don't know why. That's why
I uploaded those files.

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Kevin Rodgers]

Hendrik Bilges wrote:
> I just noticed that I didn't clarify my problem now: It works using the
> option `-no-site-file', but not without, and I don't know why. That's why
> I uploaded those files.

`M-: (find-file (locate-library site-run-file)) RET' will visit the
actual site file that Emacs 21 is loading, which may give you (us)
some hints as to why your ~/.emacs file is not being loaded.

-- 
Kevin

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Hendrik Bilges]

Kevin Rodgers wrote:

> `M-: (find-file (locate-library site-run-file)) RET' will visit the
> actual site file that Emacs 21 is loading, which may give you (us)
> some hints as to why your ~/.emacs file is not being loaded.

This pointed me in the right direction. I already posted the content of
this file earlier, I'll do it again, this time WITH the comments:

-------------
;; Emacsen independent startup file.  ...these first lines are not
;; important here.

;; Package maintainers: do not have Debian packages edit this file.
;; See the policy manual for the proper way to handle Emacs package
;; initialization code.

load "auctex.el" nil t t
load "preview-latex.el" nil t t
--------------

All is working now after commenting out those two lines:

---------------
;; load "auctex.el" nil t t
;; load "preview-latex.el" nil t t
---------------

I now ask myself how these lines got into site-start.el. I remember
installing auctex but I don't remember if I added those lines manually or
if they were generated. In the latter case, wouldn't it be a violation of
the indication given in the comment?

Should I paste these lines in my .emacs file, or where do they belong?
What do the parameters "nil t t" stand for? I couldn't find any
information on this.

Thanks, Keith and all you others!

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Harald Hanche-Olsen]

+ "Hendrik Bilges" <VZQNVPETFXMY@spammotel.com>:

| load "auctex.el" nil t t
| load "preview-latex.el" nil t t
| [...]
| What do the parameters "nil t t" stand for? I couldn't find any
| information on this.

Apart from the missing parentheses, which others have pointed out, try
typing

C-h f load <return>

You will see a quite detailed explanation of load and its parameters.

-- 
* Harald Hanche-Olsen     <URL:http://www.math.ntnu.no/~hanche/>
- It is undesirable to believe a proposition
  when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
  -- Bertrand Russell

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Sam Peterson]

>>>>> "Hendrik" == Hendrik Bilges <VZQNVPETFXMY@spammotel.com> writes:

    > Am Thu, 02 Nov 2006 16:22:53 +0100 schrieb Martin Jost: Hi
    > Martin,

    >> So -no-site-file might be a try.

    > You were right :)

    >> If you want to hunt down a site-start.el, You can use the
    >> command "describe-variable" to get the value of the variable
    >> "load-path" (this is the mentioned standard search path for
    >> Lisp libraries) You will get somehting like this:
    >> 
    >> load-path's value is
    >> (""/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/21.4/site-lisp"
    >> "/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/site-lisp"
    >> "/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/21.4/leim"
    >> "/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/21.4/lisp"

    > $ locate site-start.el /etc/emacs/site-start.el

    > $ less /etc/emacs/site-start.el load "auctex.el" nil t t load
    > "preview-latex.el" nil t t

    > There doesn't seem to be anything suspicious, hmm? May be in
    > some of those other files?:

    > $ locate *start*.el
    > /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50dictionaries-common.el
    > /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50autoconf.el
    > /etc/emacs/site-start.d/00debian-vars.el
    > /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50preview-latex.el
    > /etc/emacs/site-start.d/51preview-latex.el
    > /etc/emacs/site-start.el
    > /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/debian-startup.el
    > /usr/share/emacs/21.4/lisp/cus-start.el

    > I'm still beginning to understand these Lisp files, so I could
    > need some help. I uploaded the codes of

    > /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/debian-startup.el here:
    > http://phpfi.com/170290

    > /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50autoconf.el here:
    > http://phpfi.com/170291

    > /usr/share/emacs/21.4/lisp/cus-start.el here:
    > http://phpfi.com/170296

    >> HTH - and keep trying, emacs definitely is worth it !

    > If I wouldn't believe that I would have given up a couple of
    > hours ago ;-)

    > Thank you all for your help so far!

This is very odd behavior.  I use Ubuntu with no problems with their
stock Emacs.  From what I can tell from above, you don't seem to have
any non-standard elisp packages installed either.  The code you posted
is just a standard debian-startup elisp file which hooks emacs into
debian's way of maintaining different elisp packages across diffferent
Emacs versions.  What version of Ubuntu are you using?

-- 
Sam Peterson
skpeterson At nospam ucdavis.edu
"if programmers were paid to remove code instead of adding it,
software would be much better" -- unknown

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[Robert Thorpe]

Hendrik Bilges wrote:
> Am Thu, 02 Nov 2006 16:22:53 +0100 schrieb Martin Jost:
> Hi Martin,
>
> > So -no-site-file might be a try.
>
> You were right :)
>
> > If you want to hunt down a site-start.el, You can use the command
> > "describe-variable" to get the value of the variable "load-path" (this is
> > the mentioned standard search path for Lisp libraries) You will get
> > somehting like this:
> >
> > load-path's value is
> > (""/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/21.4/site-lisp"
> > "/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/site-lisp" "/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/21.4/leim"
> > "/pd/emacs21.4/share/emacs/21.4/lisp"
>
> $ locate site-start.el
> /etc/emacs/site-start.el
>
> $ less /etc/emacs/site-start.el
> load "auctex.el" nil t t
> load "preview-latex.el" nil t t
>
> There doesn't seem to be anything suspicious, hmm? May be in some of
> those other files?:
>
> $ locate *start*.el
> /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50dictionaries-common.el
> /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50autoconf.el
> /etc/emacs/site-start.d/00debian-vars.el
> /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50preview-latex.el
> /etc/emacs/site-start.d/51preview-latex.el
> /etc/emacs/site-start.el
> /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/debian-startup.el
> /usr/share/emacs/21.4/lisp/cus-start.el

These paths are normal emacs paths, but the executable you are using is
coming from some "alternatives" directory in Ubuntu.  That is quite
strange, Emacs behaves erratically if the lisp is not in sync with the
executable.  I don't understand the Ubuntu alternatives mechanism, so
it may be OK.

BTW I strongly expect that if you put (display-time) in .emacs you
should see it when emacs starts - it works on Emacs on my machine.
Since display-time affects the status line which is not really changed
after .emacs runs.  For your information the best test is to set a
variable with a name like "hendriks-test" in .emacs and check it's
value later.

Re: Emacs doesn't load .emacs

[John Sullivan]

"Hendrik Bilges" <VZQNVPETFXMY@spammotel.com> writes:

> If I replace the generated .emacs with the file mentioned before,
> containing only "(display-time)", it won't get loaded - the time is not
> shown in the status bar.
>
> Any ideas on this?

,----[ C-h f display-time-mode RET ]
| display-time-mode is an interactive autoloaded Lisp function in `time'.
| It is bound to <menu-bar> <options> <showhide> <showhide-date-time>.
| (display-time-mode &optional ARG)
| 
| Toggle display of time, load level, and mail flag in mode lines.
| With a numeric arg, enable this display if arg is positive.
| 
| When this display is enabled, it updates automatically every minute.
| If `display-time-day-and-date' is non-nil, the current day and date
| are displayed as well.
| This runs the normal hook `display-time-hook' after each update.
| 
| [back]
`----

Note the TOGGLE part. It's likely that something in your site-startup is
turning display-time-mode on, and then your code in .emacs is turning it back
off. So, two things to try.

1) Test with something else. Put (message "It works!") in your .emacs, then
check your *Messages* buffer after starting emacs to look for that string.

2) Use (display-time-mode 1) instead of just (display-time-mode).

-- 
-John Sullivan
-http://www.wjsullivan.net
-GPG Key: AE8600B6