interference between package and exec-path values ?

interference between package and exec-path values ?

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

I am using the most recent master.

I am finding that having this line in my .emacs.el:

(setq exec-path (append "/usr/local/bin/" exec-path))

interferes with package to the point that I can't install anything.

That's pretty recent so it may be connected with something that I installed in /usr/local/bin but I have no idea what that could be.

When I start emacs with that line and I call package-list-package I get:

For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
Making completion list...
error in process filter: if: Wrong type argument: stringp, 47
error in process filter: Wrong type argument: stringp, 47
Package refresh done
error in process filter: if: Wrong type argument: stringp, 47
error in process filter: Wrong type argument: stringp, 47

And I can't install anything (same error).

Any idea what that could be?



Jean-Christophe Helary
-----------------------------------------------
http://mac4translators.blogspot.com @brandelune

Re: interference between package and exec-path values ?

[Yuri Khan]

On Sat, Oct 20, 2018 at 12:15 AM Jean-Christophe Helary
<brandelune@gmail.com> wrote:

> I am finding that having this line in my .emacs.el:
>
> (setq exec-path (append "/usr/local/bin/" exec-path))
>
> interferes with package to the point that I can't install anything.

‘append’ accepts sequences as arguments. You are passing a string as
the first sequence, so it gets shredded to its constituent characters
and these become elements of the resulting list.

You probably wanted:

    (setq exec-path (append '("/usr/local/bin/") exec-path))

or:

    (add-to-list 'exec-path "/usr/local/bin/")

or possibly nothing, because the default value of exec-path derives
its value from your PATH environment variable and that should already
include /usr/local/bin.

Re: interference between package and exec-path values ?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Jean-Christophe Helary <brandelune@gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2018 01:41:54 +0900
> 
> I am using the most recent master.
> 
> I am finding that having this line in my .emacs.el:
> 
> (setq exec-path (append "/usr/local/bin/" exec-path))
> 
> interferes with package to the point that I can't install anything.

Of course!  You are using 'append' incorrectly.  Evaluate

  (append "/usr/local/bin/" exec-path)

and you will see what kind of result this produces.

Re: interference between package and exec-path values ?

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

Yuri,

Thank you for the explanation.
You're right, but still, I had that faulty line for a while and that did not keep package from installing files... But that's ok, I guess now that I know how to make that work as before.

Jean-Christophe 

> On Oct 20, 2018, at 2:24, Yuri Khan <yurivkhan@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On Sat, Oct 20, 2018 at 12:15 AM Jean-Christophe Helary
> <brandelune@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I am finding that having this line in my .emacs.el:
>> 
>> (setq exec-path (append "/usr/local/bin/" exec-path))
>> 
>> interferes with package to the point that I can't install anything.
> 
> ‘append’ accepts sequences as arguments. You are passing a string as
> the first sequence, so it gets shredded to its constituent characters
> and these become elements of the resulting list.
> 
> You probably wanted:
> 
>    (setq exec-path (append '("/usr/local/bin/") exec-path))
> 
> or:
> 
>    (add-to-list 'exec-path "/usr/local/bin/")
> 
> or possibly nothing, because the default value of exec-path derives
> its value from your PATH environment variable and that should already
> include /usr/local/bin.

Jean-Christophe Helary
-----------------------------------------------
http://mac4translators.blogspot.com @brandelune

Re: interference between package and exec-path values ?

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

> On Oct 20, 2018, at 2:32, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> 
>> From: Jean-Christophe Helary <brandelune@gmail.com>
>> Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2018 01:41:54 +0900
>> 
>> I am using the most recent master.
>> 
>> I am finding that having this line in my .emacs.el:
>> 
>> (setq exec-path (append "/usr/local/bin/" exec-path))
>> 
>> interferes with package to the point that I can't install anything.
> 
> Of course!  You are using 'append' incorrectly.  Evaluate
> 
>  (append "/usr/local/bin/" exec-path)
> 
> and you will see what kind of result this produces.

Yes but :)

I had this expression in my .emacs.el file for a while now and it never interfered with package.

Also, when I start with -q and evaluated the expressions one by one, evaluating that erroneous expression did *not* trigger the error, it's only when I started emacs without -q that the error was triggered.


Jean-Christophe Helary
-----------------------------------------------
http://mac4translators.blogspot.com @brandelune

Re: interference between package and exec-path values ?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Jean-Christophe Helary <brandelune@gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2018 10:55:23 +0900
> 
> > Of course!  You are using 'append' incorrectly.  Evaluate
> > 
> >  (append "/usr/local/bin/" exec-path)
> > 
> > and you will see what kind of result this produces.
> 
> Yes but :)
> 
> I had this expression in my .emacs.el file for a while now and it never interfered with package.

I'm sorry, I don't believe you ;-)  Either that expression was not
evaluated at all, or some other factor(s) were at work that bypassed
the error.

> Also, when I start with -q and evaluated the expressions one by one, evaluating that erroneous expression did *not* trigger the error, it's only when I started emacs without -q that the error was triggered.

What do you mean by "does not trigger the error"?  The evaluation
itself will never trigger any errors, as it is valid Lisp.  It's only
when you start using the resulting value of exec-path that the
problems pop up.  Perhaps previously, the resulting exec-path was
never used in your sessions.  But it's a mistake nonetheless.

Re: interference between package and exec-path values ?

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

> On Oct 20, 2018, at 15:35, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> 
>> From: Jean-Christophe Helary <brandelune@gmail.com>
>> Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2018 10:55:23 +0900
>> 
>>> Of course!  You are using 'append' incorrectly.  Evaluate
>>> 
>>> (append "/usr/local/bin/" exec-path)
>>> 
>>> and you will see what kind of result this produces.
>> 
>> Yes but :)
>> 
>> I had this expression in my .emacs.el file for a while now and it never interfered with package.
> 
> I'm sorry, I don't believe you ;-)  Either that expression was not
> evaluated at all, or some other factor(s) were at work that bypassed
> the error.

:) You're wrong not to believe me and you're right that some other factors at work bypassed the error. I seem to remember that I (badly) copied that expression from some article because when Emacs does not start from the command line it does not inherit the environment variables defined by the shell and thus you have to add the /usr/local/bin path manually from within emacs parameters.

And it happens that I used to launch GUI emacs from the command line until very recently when I started to call the Emacs.app binary directly and that's when the problem started to occur.

>> Also, when I start with -q and evaluated the expressions one by one, evaluating that erroneous expression did *not* trigger the error, it's only when I started emacs without -q that the error was triggered.
> 
> What do you mean by "does not trigger the error"?  The evaluation
> itself will never trigger any errors, as it is valid Lisp.  It's only
> when you start using the resulting value of exec-path that the
> problems pop up.  Perhaps previously, the resulting exec-path was
> never used in your sessions.

Would that be possible that when starting emacs from the command line the path defined by the shell overrides that expression (not sure I'm making sense here) ?

>  But it's a mistake nonetheless.

I understand that part :)


Jean-Christophe Helary
-----------------------------------------------
http://mac4translators.blogspot.com @brandelune

Re: interference between package and exec-path values ?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Jean-Christophe Helary <brandelune@gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2018 18:14:38 +0900
> 
> Would that be possible that when starting emacs from the command line the path defined by the shell overrides that expression (not sure I'm making sense here) ?

I don't think so.  But it is quite possible that exec-path was not
used in your previous invocations.