Clean emacs with intalled a couple of packages (helm and dash). The problem appears when I install `dash` and adter some investigation the root cause is generated file `dir`. Once I deleted the file, everything operating normally. I createad a bug for dash.el (https://github.com/magnars/dash.el/issues/343) package, but looks like the issue is in Emacs 27.1, I also experienced the same issue with all pretest version. After rolling back to 26.3 everythng work well. In GNU Emacs 27.1 (build 1, x86_64-apple-darwin18.7.0, NS appkit-1894.50 Version 10.15.5 (Build 19F101)) of 2020-08-11 built on kuragin-macbookpro.roam.corp.google.com Windowing system distributor 'Apple', version 10.3.1894 System Description: Mac OS X 10.15.5 Recent messages: Sending... Already sent message via mail; resend? (y or n) y Sending via mail... Sending... Already sent message via mail; resend? (y or n) y Sending via mail... Save this mail sending choice? (y or n) n Sending...done Mark activated C-c C-c is undefined Configured using: 'configure --with-ns '--enable-locallisppath=/Library/Application Support/Emacs/${version}/site-lisp:/Library/Application Support/Emacs/site-lisp' --with-modules' Configured features: NOTIFY KQUEUE ACL GNUTLS LIBXML2 ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS NS MODULES THREADS JSON PDUMPER Important settings: value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8 locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix Major mode: Fundamental Minor modes in effect: show-paren-mode: t helm-mode: t helm-ff-cache-mode: t shell-dirtrack-mode: t helm--remap-mouse-mode: t async-bytecomp-package-mode: t tooltip-mode: t global-eldoc-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-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 Load-path shadows: None found. Features: (network-stream nsm smtpmail mailalias mailclient misearch multi-isearch pp shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message rmc puny dired dired-loaddefs rfc822 mml mml-sec epa derived epg epg-config gnus-util rmail rmail-loaddefs text-property-search mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils help-fns radix-tree cl-print debug cc-mode cc-fonts cc-guess cc-menus cc-cmds cc-styles cc-align cc-engine cc-vars cc-defs image-file helm-external helm-net xml url url-proxy url-privacy url-expand url-methods url-history url-cookie url-domsuf url-util mailcap ffap winner thingatpt cl-extra helm-command helm-elisp helm-eval edebug backtrace help-mode find-func helm-info paren helm-mode helm-files tramp tramp-loaddefs trampver tramp-integration files-x tramp-compat shell pcomplete comint ansi-color ring parse-time iso8601 time-date ls-lisp helm-buffers helm-occur helm-tags helm-locate helm-grep helm-regexp format-spec helm-utils helm-help helm-types helm easy-mmode async-bytecomp advice helm-global-bindings helm-easymenu edmacro kmacro helm-source eieio-compat helm-multi-match helm-lib async info package browse-url url-handlers url-parse auth-source cl-seq eieio eieio-core cl-macs eieio-loaddefs password-cache json subr-x map url-vars seq byte-opt gv bytecomp byte-compile cconv cus-edit easymenu cus-load wid-edit cl-loaddefs cl-lib tooltip cus-start eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel term/ns-win ns-win ucs-normalize mule-util term/common-win tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list replace newcomment text-mode elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page tab-bar menu-bar rfn-eshadow isearch timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core term/tty-colors frame minibuffer 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 composite charscript charprop case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev obarray 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 threads kqueue cocoa ns multi-tty make-network-process emacs) Memory information: ((conses 16 395754 165731) (symbols 48 32010 63) (strings 32 91690 25738) (string-bytes 1 3748215) (vectors 16 69455) (vector-slots 8 1601407 264896) (floats 8 275 895) (intervals 56 1500 1676) (buffers 1000 22))