bug#12838: pcomplete on a path with ~ in eshell fails with "Text is read-only"

bug#12838: pcomplete on a path with ~ in eshell fails with "Text is read-only"

[Tuomas Kuismin]

Package: Emacs
Version: 24.2

Reproducing:
+ Start emacs with "emacs -Q"
+ Start eshell with M-x eshell
+ Ignore case in eshell completion with M-x set-variable -> eshell-cmpl-ignore-case -> t
+ Exit eshell with the command "exit"
+ Restart eshell with M-x eshell
+ Create a file in your home directory with the command "touch ~/foo"
+ Try to complete said file (in eshell) by typing "cat ~/f" and pressing TAB

Result: No completion is done, message "Text is read-only" appears.
Expected result: "cat ~/foo" appears on screen.

Workaround: Add the following to your init file:
(add-hook 'eshell-mode-hook (lambda () (setq pcomplete-expand-before-complete t)))
This results in the ~ being expanded (removed) from the path before completing, thus circumventing the issue.

To my knowledge, this bug exists on Linux and Mac, Emacs 24.2 and the repository.

bug#12838: pcomplete on a path with ~ in eshell fails with "Text is read-only"

[Glenn Morris]

Tuomas Kuismin wrote:

> Reproducing:
> + Start emacs with "emacs -Q"
> + Start eshell with M-x eshell
> + Ignore case in eshell completion with M-x set-variable -> eshell-cmpl-ignore-case -> t
> + Exit eshell with the command "exit"
> + Restart eshell with M-x eshell

aka
emacs -Q --eval '(setq eshell-cmpl-ignore-case t)' -f eshell

> + Create a file in your home directory with the command "touch ~/foo"
> + Try to complete said file (in eshell) by typing "cat ~/f" and pressing TAB
>
> Result: No completion is done, message "Text is read-only" appears.

Thanks for the report, with similar symptoms to the closed
http://debbugs.gnu.org/5067.

This is a bug in pcomplete-insert-entry, which tries to delete
"/home/user/f" from a buffer that contains only "~/f", and so ends up
trying to delete the read-only prompt. There is a FIXME comment in the
source about this...

It works fine in 23.4, not in 24.1 and later.

bug#12838: pcomplete on a path with ~ in eshell fails with "Text is read-only"

[Glenn Morris]

I installed a workaround in emacs-24 for eshell.
Hopefully someone will fix it properly at some point.

bug#12838: pcomplete on a path with ~ in eshell fails with "Text is read-only"

[Stefan Monnier]

> I installed a workaround in emacs-24 for eshell.
> Hopefully someone will fix it properly at some point.

Thanks.  The completion-at-point version of pcomplete works here, so
I installed a different workaround, and the "fix it properly" will be to
move to completion-at-point.


        Stefan