Re: Bug: wrong-type-argument when changing TODO state [7.7]

[Nick Dokos <nicholas.dokos@hp.com>]

Stelian Iancu <stelian.iancu@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 19:09, Nick Dokos <nicholas.dokos@hp.com> wrote:
> > Stelian Iancu <stelian.iancu@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> I am trying to switch between TODO and DONE states with Shift-Right
> >> Arrow and I get a (wrong-type-argument stringp nil) error.
> >>
> >> Please find attached the backtrace.
> >>
> >>
> >> Emacs  : GNU Emacs 23.2.1 (i486-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.20.0)
> >>  of 2010-12-11 on raven, modified by Debian
> >> Package: Org-mode version 7.7
> >>
> >
> >> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument stringp nil)
> >>   looking-at(nil)
> >>   (save-excursion (beginning-of-line 1) (looking-at org-todo-line-regexp))
> >>   (and (outline-on-heading-p) (not (bolp)) (save-excursion (beginning-of-line 1) (looking-at org-todo-line-regexp)) (< (point) (+ 2 ...)))
> >>   (if (and (outline-on-heading-p) (not ...) (save-excursion ... ...) (< ... ...)) (progn (goto-char ...) (and ... ...)))
> >>   (let* ...)
> >>   (catch (quote exit) ...)
> >>   (save-excursion (catch (quote exit)...)
> >>   (let ...)
> >>   org-todo(right)
> >>   call-interactively(org-todo)
> >>   (let ((current-prefix-arg arg)) (call-interactively command))
> >>   org-call-with-arg(org-todo right)
> >>   (let ...)
> >>   (cond ...)
> >>   org-shiftright(nil)
> >>   call-interactively(org-shiftright nil nil)
> >
> > The problem is that org-todo-line-regexp is nil. This variable is
> > made buffer-local and initialized when the buffer's mode is set
> > to org-mode.
> >
> > Are you sure that your buffer's major mode is org-mode?
> >
> > Nick
> >
> 
> Yeah, the mode shows as org-mode.

What happens if while visiting the buffer, you say

C-h v org-todo-line-regexp RET

Is the value reported nil? 

> But now I get another weird one.
> Everytime I open an org file, I see the following message in the
> minibuffer:
> 
> File mode specification error: (wrong-type-argument keymap nil)
> 

That will require another backtrace but...

> I'm lost ...

When you get to the point of feeling lost, it's time to take a step
back. Make yourself a minimal.emacs that contains just the basics to
get org-mode loaded - assuming you get your org sources from git, then
you need something like this (with pathnames changed appropriately):

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
;;; -*- mode: emacs-lisp -*-
;;; constant part
(add-to-list 'load-path (expand-file-name "~/src/emacs/org/org-mode/lisp"))
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.\\(org\\|org_archive\\|txt\\)$" . org-mode))
(require 'org-install)
(global-set-key "\C-cl" 'org-store-link)
(global-set-key "\C-ca" 'org-agenda)
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Then start up an emacs without any of your customizations, load the minimal.emacs
file and visit an org file and try what you tried before:

   emacs -q -l /path/to/minimal.emacs /path/to/somefile.org

and try changing a TODO as before.  Does that work? If not, try -Q
instead of -q: does *that* work?

Assuming one of these works, then you have localized the problem to
some customization (yours or the systems) and then there are various
ways to proceed.

Nick

> 
> S.
>