Let find-gnu-message.el contain: (progn (switch-to-buffer "*Messages*") (goto-char (point-min)) (let ((case-fold-search t)) (re-search-forward "gnu"))) With Emacs 24.3: emacs -Q --load find-gnu-message.el The string "GNU" is found in the *Messages* buffer. Do the same thing with Emacs from trunk. "GNU" is not found. As discussed at https://bitbucket.org/lyro/evil/issue/286/evil-search-with-smart-evil-ex-search-case, the implicated commit is: b7139a2e8b2dc9c06507909cd863d0c124388f91 is the first bad commit commit b7139a2e8b2dc9c06507909cd863d0c124388f91 Author: Stefan Monnier Date: Wed Mar 27 10:33:03 2013 -0400 * lisp/case-table.el (case-table-get-table): New function. * lisp/case-table.el: Use lexical-binding. (case-table-get-table): New function. (get-upcase-table): Use it. Mark as obsolete. Adjust callers. * src/casetab.c (init_casetab_once): Don't abuse the ascii eqv table for the upcase table. --- In GNU Emacs 24.3.50.2 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.10.4) of 2013-05-17 on redacted Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.70101000 System Description: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client release 5.4 (Tikanga) Configured using: `configure --prefix=/redacted/linux/boreilly/sw/emacs/install --with-gif=no' Important settings: value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8 value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=none locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix default enable-multibyte-characters: t Major mode: Fundamental Minor modes in effect: global-whitespace-mode: t global-cedet-m3-minor-mode: t global-semantic-mru-bookmark-mode: t global-semanticdb-minor-mode: t global-semantic-idle-scheduler-mode: t semantic-mode: t global-ede-mode: t evil-mode: t evil-local-mode: t global-undo-tree-mode: t undo-tree-mode: t show-paren-mode: t delete-selection-mode: t global-auto-revert-mode: t tooltip-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t column-number-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Recent input: M-x r e p o r t Recent messages: Loading /redacted/user/boreilly/redacted-dev.el (source)... Loading /redacted/linux/boreilly/cc/current/vobs/redacted_dev/Software_Engineering/redacted/Dev/lib/redacted-swit.el (source)...done Loading /redacted/user/boreilly/redacted-dev.el (source)...done Loading whitespace...done Source file `/home/boreilly/.emacs.d/my/my-config.el' newer than byte-compiled file 2013-05-20T09:40:23.343854 Finished loading init file. 2013-05-20T09:40:23.352873 Inside my-prog-mode-hook 2013-05-20T09:40:23.353067 Inside my-emacs-lisp-mode-hook for buffer *scratch* For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a. 2013-05-20T09:40:23.356007 Finished with my-term-setup-hook. -------------------------------- let: Search failed: "gnu" Load-path shadows: /redacted/user/boreilly/sw/cedet/lisp/speedbar/loaddefs hides /redacted/user/boreilly/sw/cedet/lisp/eieio/loaddefs /redacted/user/boreilly/sw/cedet/lisp/speedbar/loaddefs hides /redacted/user/boreilly/sw/cedet/lisp/cedet/loaddefs /redacted/user/boreilly/sw/cedet/lisp/speedbar/loaddefs hides /home/boreilly/l/sw/emacs/lisp/loaddefs /redacted/user/boreilly/sw/cedet/lisp/eieio/chart hides /home/boreilly/l/sw/emacs/lisp/emacs-lisp/chart /redacted/user/boreilly/sw/cedet/lisp/eieio/eieio hides /home/boreilly/l/sw/emacs/lisp/emacs-lisp/eieio /redacted/user/boreilly/sw/cedet/lisp/eieio/eieio-speedbar hides /home/boreilly/l/sw/emacs/lisp/emacs-lisp/eieio-speedbar /redacted/user/boreilly/sw/cedet/lisp/eieio/eieio-custom hides /home/boreilly/l/sw/emacs/lisp/emacs-lisp/eieio-custom /redacted/user/boreilly/sw/cedet/lisp/eieio/eieio-base hides /home/boreilly/l/sw/emacs/lisp/emacs-lisp/eieio-base /redacted/user/boreilly/sw/cedet/lisp/eieio/eieio-datadebug hides /home/boreilly/l/sw/emacs/lisp/emacs-lisp/eieio-datadebug /redacted/user/boreilly/sw/cedet/lisp/eieio/eieio-opt hides /home/boreilly/l/sw/emacs/lisp/emacs-lisp/eieio-opt Features: (shadow sort gnus-util mail-extr emacsbug message format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils my-config whitespace cus-start cus-load my-proj eassist derived cedet-m3 semantic/mru-bookmark semantic/db-mode semantic/idle semantic/bovine/gcc semantic/dep semantic/ia semantic/analyze/refs semantic/senator semantic/db-find semantic/db-ref semantic/decorate working fame pulse cedet-devel-load warnings eieio-opt help-mode find-func srecode/map srecode semantic/canned-configs semantic/ia-sb semantic/analyze semantic/sort semantic/scope semantic/analyze/fcn semantic/db semantic/ctxt semantic/format semantic/tag-ls semantic/find semantic/util-modes semantic/util semantic semantic/tag semantic/lex semantic/fw mode-local cedet-compat inversion ede/speedbar ede/files ede ede/base ede/auto ede/source eieio-base eieio-speedbar speedbar sb-image ezimage dframe easymenu eieio-custom wid-edit cedet eieio byte-opt bytecomp byte-compile cconv eieio-core cedet-remove-builtin cl-macs gv evil evil-integration evil-maps evil-commands evil-types evil-search evil-ex evil-macros evil-repeat evil-states evil-core evil-common windmove rect evil-digraphs evil-vars ring edmacro kmacro undo-tree diff goto-chg rainbow-delimiters my-util advice help-fns electric paren delsel autorevert cl nadvice cl-lib time-date tooltip ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel x-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment lisp-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process dbusbind dynamic-setting system-font-setting font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit x multi-tty emacs)