I'm not sure if this is a bug, but the function map-put does not change its argument MAP if the map is an alist and the key is not found. For example, the following code returns "value" as expected: (require 'map) (let ((m (make-hash-table))) (map-put m 'key "value") (map-elt m 'key)) If I replace m by an alist, then the following code returns nil. I expected it returned "value" as above. (let ((m nil)) (map-put m 'key "value") (map-elt m 'key)) By expanding map-put, I found that it returns a new list if "m" is a list and the key is not in "m". Best regards, Sho Takemori In GNU Emacs 25.0.92.1 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.16.7) of 2016-03-24 built on K430-Ubuntu Repository revision: c0165ea4d6ecf81db6728782c7322c311ee0a783 Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11702000 System Description: Ubuntu 15.10 Configured using: 'configure --with-sound=no --with-file-notification=yes' Configured features: XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG IMAGEMAGICK GPM DBUS GCONF GSETTINGS NOTIFY ACL LIBSELINUX GNUTLS LIBXML2 FREETYPE M17N_FLT LIBOTF XFT ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS GTK3 X11 Important settings: value of $LC_MONETARY: ja_JP.UTF-8 value of $LC_NUMERIC: ja_JP.UTF-8 value of $LC_TIME: ja_JP.UTF-8 value of $LANG: ja_JP.UTF-8 value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=fcitx locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix Major mode: Lisp Interaction Minor modes in effect: tooltip-mode: t global-eldoc-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t tool-bar-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 line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Recent messages: For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a. Mark set map "value" Mark set nil [2 times] scroll-up-command: End of buffer Load-path shadows: None found. Features: (shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message dired format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec password-cache epg epg-config gnus-util mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util help-fns mail-prsvr mail-utils map seq byte-opt gv bytecomp byte-compile cconv cl-extra help-mode easymenu cl-loaddefs pcase cl-lib time-date mule-util japan-util tooltip eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel x-win term/common-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese charscript case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote dbusbind inotify dynamic-setting system-font-setting font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit x multi-tty make-network-process emacs) Memory information: ((conses 16 95859 6137) (symbols 48 20522 0) (miscs 40 327 121) (strings 32 16995 4550) (string-bytes 1 505060) (vectors 16 13958) (vector-slots 8 527873 8024) (floats 8 182 21) (intervals 56 220 12) (buffers 976 11) (heap 1024 50485 944))