To reproduce with emacs -Q evaluate the following form (progn (setq debug-on-error t) (set-frame-height (selected-frame) 10) (split-window) (temp-buffer-resize-mode) (setq temp-buffer-max-height 20)) and do C-h v temp-buffer-max-height Gets me Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument window-live-p #) describe-variable(temp-buffer-max-height) call-interactively(describe-variable nil nil) FWIW, the reason is that `fit-window-to-buffer' deletes prev_window temp_output_buffer_show eventually wants to resurrect after running `temp-buffer-show-hook'. The attached patch fixes this for me. martin, who thinks that `fit-window-to-buffer' shouldn't delete windows ...