failed compile command runs on exit, prevents exit – how to track down?

Question

I'm on a new system (Amazon Linux 2015.9), and my emacs config seems to not like the stock install (Emacs 24.3.1) or vice-versa.

When I do C-x C-c it runs save-buffers-kill-terminal.

But this fails, and writes Wrong type argument: listp, "make -k " to the minibuffer.

I have determined that whatever value I set for compile-command will appear in the message. For example, I can make emacs fail to exit with the message Wrong type argument: listp, "foobar " or Wrong type argument: listp, "".

But I can't figure out what it causing a compile to run on exit or how to shut it off.

Is there a hook that lives somewhere? Does anyone have any ideas for tracking this down?

At the moment I can only quit by backgrounding the process and doing kill %1.

Answer 1

With the suggestions of @elethan and @Tobias I was able to generate this stack-trace:

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument listp "make -k ")
  savehist-save(t)
  savehist-autosave()
  kill-emacs()
  save-buffers-kill-emacs(nil)   
  save-buffers-kill-terminal(nil)
  call-interactively(save-buffers-kill-terminal nil nil)

And track it down to savehist, which I disabled for now.