Lost HTML rendering in Gnus after update from Emacs 24.3.1 to 24.3.50

Lost HTML rendering in Gnus after update from Emacs 24.3.1 to 24.3.50

[N. Jackson]

I have updated Emacs from 24.3.1 [1] to 24.3.50 [2] and when viewing
HTML emails in Gnus, I am seeing just the raw HTML as if it were plain
text. In Emacs 24.3.1 the HTML would be crudely but readably rendered.

Is there something I need to configure to get HTML rendering working in
Emacs 24.3.50?

Thanks!

Regards, N.

[1] GNU Emacs 24.3.1 (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.8.2)
 of 2013-08-14 on buildvm-15.phx2.fedoraproject.org Windowing system
distributor `Fedora Project', version 11.0.11404000 System Description:
Fedora release 19 (Schrödinger’s Cat)
 
[2] In GNU Emacs 24.3.50.2 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version
2.24.22)
 of 2014-02-10 on moondust Repository revision: 116400
michael.albinus@gmx.de-20140210135433-zh8yf8lhyrxg3n2o Windowing system
distributor `Fedora Project', version 11.0.11404000 System Description:
Fedora release 19 (Schrödinger’s Cat)

Re: Lost HTML rendering in Gnus after update from Emacs 24.3.1 to 24.3.50

[W. Greenhouse]

nljlistbox2-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org (N. Jackson) writes:

> Is there something I need to configure to get HTML rendering working in
> Emacs 24.3.50?

Have a look at (describe-variable 'mm-text-html-renderer).  The `shr'
renderer is an option for this that has no external dependencies besides
Gnus itself.

Re: Lost HTML rendering in Gnus after update from Emacs 24.3.1 to 24.3.50

[N. Jackson]

W. Greenhouse <wgreenhouse@riseup.net> writes:

> nljlistbox2@gmail.com (N. Jackson) writes:
>
>> Is there something I need to configure to get HTML rendering working in
>> Emacs 24.3.50?
>
> Have a look at (describe-variable 'mm-text-html-renderer).  The `shr'
> renderer is an option for this that has no external dependencies besides
> Gnus itself.

In 24.3.1 I get:

    mm-text-html-renderer's value is shr

But in 24.3.50 the variable "mm-text-html-renderer" doesn't exist.

In fact I get no completions for any of the variables beginning with "mm-"
(of which there are dozens in Emacs 24.3.1).

So, presumably that explains the no html rendering, but what is the
explanation of the missing "mm-" variables?

Re: Lost HTML rendering in Gnus after update from Emacs 24.3.1 to 24.3.50

[W. Greenhouse]

nljlistbox2-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org (N. Jackson) writes:

> In 24.3.1 I get:
>
>     mm-text-html-renderer's value is shr
>
> But in 24.3.50 the variable "mm-text-html-renderer" doesn't exist.
>
> In fact I get no completions for any of the variables beginning with "mm-"
> (of which there are dozens in Emacs 24.3.1).
>
> So, presumably that explains the no html rendering, but what is the
> explanation of the missing "mm-" variables?

Hmm.... I haven't followed the development status of gnus or emacs past
the current stable release, but I'd be surprised if mm- libs had really
gone away; those are Gnus's implementation of MIME.

What does (locate-library "mm-decode") say?

Re: Lost HTML rendering in Gnus after update from Emacs 24.3.1 to 24.3.50

[N. Jackson]

W. Greenhouse <wgreenhouse@riseup.net> writes:

>> But in 24.3.50 the variable "mm-text-html-renderer" doesn't exist.
>>
>> In fact I get no completions for any of the variables beginning with "mm-"
>> (of which there are dozens in Emacs 24.3.1).
>>
>> So, presumably that explains the no html rendering, but what is the
>> explanation of the missing "mm-" variables?

> What does (locate-library "mm-decode") say?

"/home/nlj/local/share/emacs/24.3.50/lisp/gnus/mm-decode.elc"

I think that's what I would expect, given that I configured with
"--prefix=/home/nlj/local/".

Re: Lost HTML rendering in Gnus after update from Emacs 24.3.1 to 24.3.50

[N. Jackson]

nljlistbox2@gmail.com (N. Jackson) writes:

> W. Greenhouse <wgreenhouse@riseup.net> writes:
>
>> nljlistbox2@gmail.com (N. Jackson) writes:
>>
>>> Is there something I need to configure to get HTML rendering working in
>>> Emacs 24.3.50?
>>
>> Have a look at (describe-variable 'mm-text-html-renderer).  The `shr'
>> renderer is an option for this that has no external dependencies besides
>> Gnus itself.
>
> In 24.3.1 I get:
>
>     mm-text-html-renderer's value is shr
>
> But in 24.3.50 the variable "mm-text-html-renderer" doesn't exist.
>
> In fact I get no completions for any of the variables beginning with "mm-"
> (of which there are dozens in Emacs 24.3.1).
>
> So, presumably that explains the no html rendering, but what is the
> explanation of the missing "mm-" variables?

There is one additional oddity. On startup Emacs gives me the message:

"Error: (file-error "Cannot open load file" "no such file or directory"
"tex-site")"

Even if I comment out the entirety of my .emacs file, I still get this
error. But I do not get it with emacs -Q.

But even with emacs -Q I have no "mm-" variables.

Re: Lost HTML rendering in Gnus after update from Emacs 24.3.1 to 24.3.50

[N. Jackson]

nljlistbox2@gmail.com (N. Jackson) writes:

> There is one additional oddity. On startup Emacs gives me the message:
>
> "Error: (file-error "Cannot open load file" "no such file or directory"
> "tex-site")"
>
> Even if I comment out the entirety of my .emacs file, I still get this
> error. But I do not get it with emacs -Q.
>
> But even with emacs -Q I have no "mm-" variables.

Sorry. That turns out to be irrelevant. Going into the Emacs package
manager and deleting the autex package "fixes" that problem.

So I now have no errors on startup, but I'm still left with no "mm-"
variables.

Help with make install to a non-default directory - Emacs not finding lisp files maybe?

[N. Jackson]

nljlistbox2@gmail.com (N. Jackson) writes:

> W. Greenhouse <wgreenhouse@riseup.net> writes:
>
>>> But in 24.3.50 the variable "mm-text-html-renderer" doesn't exist.
>>>
>>> In fact I get no completions for any of the variables beginning with
>>> "mm-" (of which there are dozens in Emacs 24.3.1).
>>>
>>> So, presumably that explains the no html rendering, but what is the
>>> explanation of the missing "mm-" variables?
>
>> What does (locate-library "mm-decode") say?
>
> "/home/nlj/local/share/emacs/24.3.50/lisp/gnus/mm-decode.elc"
>
> I think that's what I would expect, given that I configured with
> "--prefix=/home/nlj/local/".

I'm wondering if I need to do anything in particular to tell Emacs where
its files are after an install to a non-default location.

I feel that I followed the instructions in the INSTALL file carefully,
but I'm seeing signs that Emacs is maybe running with (some) old lisp
files.

I did the following:

$ export DEVHOME=/data/projects/vc/
$ cd $DEVHOME
$ bzr init-repo emacs/
$ cd emacs
$ bzr branch bzr://bzr.savannah.gnu.org/emacs/trunk trunk
$ cd trunk
$ echo "public_branch = bzr://bzr.savannah.gnu.org/emacs/trunk" >> .bzr/branch/branch.conf
$ bzr bind bzr://bzr.savannah.gnu.org/emacs/trunk
$ ./autogen.sh
$ ./configure --prefix=/home/nlj/local/
$ make bootstrap
$ make 
$ sudo make install

In addition to Emacs not knowing about all the variables beginning in
"mm-", "M-x gnus-version" reports "v5.13", which is same version number 
that I get with my old version of Emacs which hasn't been updated for
months. So I think I'm possibly seeing the old files for gnus, rather
than the new ones in /home/nlj/local/share/emacs/24.3.50/lisp/gnus/.

Actually. No. That is not exactly the case. I temporarily renamed that
directory to /home/nlj/local/share/emacs/24.3.50/lisp/xx-gnus/ and
restarted Emacs and tried to start Gnus again, and got the error
"command-execute: Cannot open load file: no such file or directory,
gnus", so Emacs _is_ looking in the right place, at least for Gnus, if
not for the mime stuff.

Note that running Emacs directly from the build directory, I see the
same problems (no rendering of html mail, no "mm-" variables), as I do
running it from the installed location.

What else should I look at?

Re: Help with make install to a non-default directory - Emacs not finding lisp files maybe?

[N. Jackson]

Ah! Overnight it occured to my sleeping brain that maybe the "mm-"
variables are only defined after Gnus is started, and sure enough that
is the case. So _please ignore_ the above explorations.

Backing up to here:

nljlistbox2@gmail.com (N. Jackson) writes:

> W. Greenhouse <wgreenhouse@riseup.net> writes:
>
>> nljlistbox2@gmail.com (N. Jackson) writes:
>>
>>> Is there something I need to configure to get HTML rendering working
>>> in Emacs 24.3.50?
>>
>> Have a look at (describe-variable 'mm-text-html-renderer).  The `shr'
>> renderer is an option for this that has no external dependencies
>> besides Gnus itself.
>
> In 24.3.1 I get:
>
>     mm-text-html-renderer's value is shr
>
> But in 24.3.50 the variable "mm-text-html-renderer" doesn't exist.
>
> In fact I get no completions for any of the variables beginning with
> "mm-" (of which there are dozens in Emacs 24.3.1).
>
> So, presumably that explains the no html rendering, but what is the
> explanation of the missing "mm-" variables?

Once Gnus is started, I have in 24.3.50:

   mm-text-html-renderer is a variable defined in `mm-decode.el'.  Its
   value is html2text

So the default values have changed between 24.3.1 and 24.3.50.

In any case, I have now set this variable to shr. But html emails are
_still not_ being rendered.

What next ought I to look at?

Re: Help with make install to a non-default directory - Emacs not finding lisp files maybe?

[Stefan Monnier]

SHR can only be used if Emacs was compiled with support for libxml.
Most likely you don't have libxml-devel (or whatever the name is)
installed, so your locally compiled Emacs can't use your libxml.


        Stefan

Re: Help with make install to a non-default directory - Emacs not finding lisp files maybe?

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Thu, 13 Feb 2014 06:47:19 -0400 nljlistbox2@gmail.com (N. Jackson) wrote: 

NJ> Once Gnus is started, I have in 24.3.50:

NJ>    mm-text-html-renderer is a variable defined in `mm-decode.el'.  Its
NJ>    value is html2text

NJ> So the default values have changed between 24.3.1 and 24.3.50.

NJ> In any case, I have now set this variable to shr. But html emails are
NJ> _still not_ being rendered.

NJ> What next ought I to look at?

Run `M-x eww' and see if it works.  It uses shr.

If it works, it's a configuration problem.  If not, you can't use shr
(e.g. libxml support missing).

Ted

Re: Help with make install to a non-default directory - Emacs not finding lisp files maybe?

[N. Jackson]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> SHR can only be used if Emacs was compiled with support for libxml.
> Most likely you don't have libxml-devel (or whatever the name is)
> installed, so your locally compiled Emacs can't use your libxml.
>
>
>         Stefan

Aha! Thanks Stefan. The configure script had asked for various libraries
(a toolkit library, four image libraries, and somthing about curses)
which I installed for it, but it made no mention of wanting an XML
library. But looking back in the details of the configure log, I see
that it silently skips other (non-vital?) libraries that it doesn't
find.

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

> Run `M-x eww' and see if it works.  It uses shr.
>
> If it works, it's a configuration problem.  If not, you can't use shr
> (e.g. libxml support missing).
>
> Ted

Thanks, Ted. Yes, "M-x eww" prompts for an URL then gives the message

    error in process filter: eww-display-html: This function requires
    Emacs to be compiled with libxml2

So there it is! I clearly didn't build with the required library.

(I wish the Gnus MIME stuff was informative like that, instead of
silently failing!)


I have now rebuilt, configured thus:

  Where should the build process find the source code?    .
  What compiler should emacs be built with?               gcc -std=gnu99 -g3 -O2
  Should Emacs use the GNU version of malloc?             yes
      (Using Doug Lea's new malloc from the GNU C Library.)
  Should Emacs use a relocating allocator for buffers?    no
  Should Emacs use mmap(2) for buffer allocation?         no
  What window system should Emacs use?                    x11
  What toolkit should Emacs use?                          GTK3
  Where do we find X Windows header files?                Standard dirs
  Where do we find X Windows libraries?                   Standard dirs
  Does Emacs use -lXaw3d?                                 no
  Does Emacs use -lXpm?                                   yes
  Does Emacs use -ljpeg?                                  yes
  Does Emacs use -ltiff?                                  yes
  Does Emacs use a gif library?                           yes -lgif
  Does Emacs use -lpng?                                   yes
  Does Emacs use -lrsvg-2?                                yes
  Does Emacs use imagemagick?                             no
  Does Emacs support sound?                               yes
  Does Emacs use -lgpm?                                   no
  Does Emacs use -ldbus?                                  yes
  Does Emacs use -lgconf?                                 yes
  Does Emacs use GSettings?                               yes
  Does Emacs use a file notification library?             yes -lgio (gfile)
  Does Emacs use access control lists?                    yes -lacl
  Does Emacs use -lselinux?                               yes
  Does Emacs use -lgnutls?                                yes
  Does Emacs use -lxml2?                                  yes
  Does Emacs use -lfreetype?                              yes
  Does Emacs use -lm17n-flt?                              yes
  Does Emacs use -lotf?                                   yes
  Does Emacs use -lxft?                                   yes
  Does Emacs directly use zlib?                           yes
  Does Emacs use toolkit scroll bars?                     yes

HTML rendering in Gnus (and from eww) is now working, so unless anyone
can see anything glaringly wrong in this list, I think I am all good
now. :)

[Totally irrelevantly, while writing this post, I am also happy to see
that pasting now replaces selection. :)]

Out of curiosity, what would imagemagick support give me?

Thank you all and best regards,
N.

Re: Help with make install to a non-default directory - Emacs not finding lisp files maybe?

[Stefan Monnier]

> library.  But looking back in the details of the configure log, I see
> that it silently skips other (non-vital?) libraries that it
> doesn't find.

Right, the question is what is "vital".
For some people, already the image libraries we require aren't vital at
all, while for others we should also require libxml and libgnutls.
Over time, we tend to require more libs, but libxml and libgnutls are
"recentish" additions so they're not required yet.


        Stefan

Re: Help with make install to a non-default directory - Emacs not finding lisp files maybe?

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Thu, 13 Feb 2014 13:09:45 -0400 nljlistbox2@gmail.com (N. Jackson) wrote: 

NJ> Thanks, Ted. Yes, "M-x eww" prompts for an URL then gives the message

NJ>     error in process filter: eww-display-html: This function requires
NJ>     Emacs to be compiled with libxml2

NJ> So there it is! I clearly didn't build with the required library.

I'm glad!

NJ> (I wish the Gnus MIME stuff was informative like that, instead of
NJ> silently failing!)

Well, it tried hard to Just Work.  I agree that dumping HTML to text is
not the greatest experience.  It builds character, though.

Ted