From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Tim X Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: How to debug "Debugger entered--Lisp error: (void-function nil)" Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2007 15:16:45 +1000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: <87abxif7pe.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au> References: <85abygg2j7.fsf@robf.de> <873b485mnw.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au> <85veghufnk.fsf@robf.de> <878xdcq268.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au> <85slbafxa3.fsf@robf.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1176097043 28300 80.91.229.12 (9 Apr 2007 05:37:23 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 05:37:23 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Apr 09 07:36:56 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1HamYh-0000x0-VP for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 09 Apr 2007 07:36:56 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HamcT-0003I5-Vb for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 09 Apr 2007 01:40:50 -0400 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newshub.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!news4.google.com!sn-xt-sjc-04!sn-xt-sjc-07!sn-post-sjc-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.95 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:36egXUwn0NfxNZxuU9QBf9mEcAU= Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Original-Lines: 87 Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:146889 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:42493 Archived-At: newsspam5REMOVETHIS@robf.de writes: > Tim X writes: >> BTW, there is also a gnu.emacs.vm.bug group that may be able to provide more >> specific assistance. > > It is basically dead and if there is someone answering to bug > reports, then it is usually me. ;-) > > I was using gnu.emacs.help as it seemed to be a GNU Emacs problem > and not a VM problem to me. > Just a few more suggestions - 1. Grab the vm package from debian unstable (I think it is 7.19-12 rather than -11). This is the very latest version for Debian, but I don't think its been put into testing yet. 2. You asked about other 'forks' of VM. I probably over stated things by saying they were forks - more correctly, they are versions that have been somewhat customized/patched rather than being apropper fork. I only realised just now that one of them is your patched version you mailed me about a few months ago when I was having problems with VM's handling of apple mail attachments (I didn't recognise your name/e-mail). There is one other, which I think is also by someone in Germany, but I cannot find the URL I thought I had. 3. You mentioned you are trying this by running vm from another account and connecting to the account from your Xsession using xauthority to handle display access etc. you also mentioned you tried it without running it from another account to eliminate xauthority issues. Make sure that when you do the su to run emacs, you are oding an su - username and not just an su. The - will ensure your reading the propper init files for the remote account and that the shell for the remote account is being correctly setup. You can get some 'subtle' and difficult to track down problems with just an su rather than an su - (though therre are plenty of times you actually want su and not su -_) A common problem is incorrect home directory settings. With just su, the account you have logged into will have your home dir setting, with su - it will have the remote home setting. This can affect things such as the user mailbox location and config files that are read etc. . 4. From your posts, it seems you are getting the problem only when trying to run emacs with VM under X, but not if you use -nw. This is quite interesting and a valuable clue. This would indicate the problem is with something emacs does under X that it does not do under a console. Some possibilities may be - coding systems (I seem to remember one of the backtraces you posted, the one with BYTE-CODE MODIFIED BY ME on one of the lines also had errors about coding systems and remote pop mailboxes or similar). - fonts and images. Maybe its something to do with the VM toolbar images/pixmaps? I don't use these and have that disabled in my .vm - X resource settings You also mentioned you have no .vm at all. Perhaps it would be worthwhile creating a very basic minimalist .vm in case the probem is an uninitialised variable that isn't being set to a default by vm and isn't being checked for a value - maybe the first mail it is trying to read/display requires mime decoding and there is no mime decoder set etc. I mention this because I seem to remember getting a void function error and backtrace when I tried to start vm without any .vm at all. I will try to remember to move my .vm to the side next time I'm starting emacs and see what I get. Note also that I have a .vm.windows config file to. Probably not relevant, but thought I'd mention it anyway. finally, your last resort is to just start putting some (message ....) lines in the code and narrowing down where the problem is. You can then look in *Messages* and see where 3execution gets to before the error is thrown. It must be pretty early in the process to get such a small backtrace. I've also found defadvice can be useful here - you can put a defadvice wrapper wround functions and have it print a message, which will help you narrow own where the execution fails etc. All of these are just shots in the dark. I'm glad you are taking over maintenance of VM from kyle as it would be a shame to see such a useful package fall behind due to lack of maintenance. It is a good mail reader, but needs to be maintained to keep pace with developments in mail features etc. Good luck. Tim -- tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au