I've managed to replicate this on a Windows PC: GNU Emacs 24.5.1 (i686-pc-mingw32) of 2015-04-11 on LEG570 Run emacs -Q Evaluate: (show-paren-mode +1) Open a new shell script buffer: C-x b test M-x shell-script-mode and type: if If I don't turn on show-paren-mode there is no hang and Emacs carries on happily. -- Alan Third