4

Running emacs 25.2.2.

To add a property, when I C-c C-x p while on a headline in an org file, it creates an error (prior to C-c C-x p, I had done M-x toggle-debug-on-error to produce a detailed stack trace):

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument integer-or-marker-p nil)
  org-buffer-property-keys(nil t t)
  org-read-property-name()
  org-set-property(nil nil)
  funcall-interactively(org-set-property nil nil)
  call-interactively(org-set-property nil nil)
  command-execute(org-set-property)

After I M-x load-library RET org.el RET it produces the following stack trace:

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument integer-or-marker-p nil)
  goto-char(nil)
  (while (re-search-forward org-property-start-re nil t) (setq range (org-get-property-block)) (goto-char (car range)) (while (re-search-forward org-property-re (cdr range) t) (let* ((x (org-match-string-no-properties 2))) (if (member x rtn) rtn (setq rtn (cons x rtn))))) (outline-next-heading))
  (save-restriction (widen) (goto-char (point-min)) (while (re-search-forward org-property-start-re nil t) (setq range (org-get-property-block)) (goto-char (car range)) (while (re-search-forward org-property-re (cdr range) t) (let* ((x (org-match-string-no-properties 2))) (if (member x rtn) rtn (setq rtn (cons x rtn))))) (outline-next-heading)))
  (save-excursion (save-restriction (widen) (goto-char (point-min)) (while (re-search-forward org-property-start-re nil t) (setq range (org-get-property-block)) (goto-char (car range)) (while (re-search-forward org-property-re (cdr range) t) (let* ((x (org-match-string-no-properties 2))) (if (member x rtn) rtn (setq rtn (cons x rtn))))) (outline-next-heading))))
  (let (rtn range cfmt s p) (save-excursion (save-restriction (widen) (goto-char (point-min)) (while (re-search-forward org-property-start-re nil t) (setq range (org-get-property-block)) (goto-char (car range)) (while (re-search-forward org-property-re (cdr range) t) (let* ((x ...)) (if (member x rtn) rtn (setq rtn ...)))) (outline-next-heading)))) (if include-specials (progn (setq rtn (append org-special-properties rtn)))) (if include-defaults (progn (mapc (function (lambda (x) (if (member x rtn) rtn (setq rtn ...)))) org-default-properties) (if (member org-effort-property rtn) rtn (setq rtn (cons org-effort-property rtn))))) (if include-columns (progn (save-excursion (save-restriction (widen) (goto-char (point-min)) (while (re-search-forward "^\\(#\\+COLUMNS:\\|[     ]*:COLUMNS:\\)[     ]*\\(.*\\)" nil t) (setq cfmt (match-string 2) s 0) (while (string-match "%[0-9]*\\([-[:alnum:]_]+\\)" cfmt s) (setq s ... p ...) (if ... nil ...))))))) (sort rtn (function (lambda (a b) (string< (upcase a) (upcase b))))))
  org-buffer-property-keys(nil t t)
  (let* ((completion-ignore-case t) (keys (org-buffer-property-keys nil t t)) (default-prop (or (save-excursion (let ((save-match-data-internal ...)) (unwind-protect (progn ... ...) (set-match-data save-match-data-internal ...)))) org-last-set-property)) (property (org-icompleting-read (concat "Property" (if default-prop (concat " [" default-prop "]") "") ": ") (mapcar (quote list) keys) nil nil nil nil default-prop))) (if (member property keys) property (or (cdr (assoc (downcase property) (mapcar (function (lambda ... ...)) keys))) property)))
  org-read-property-name()
  (or property (org-read-property-name))
  (let* ((property (or property (org-read-property-name))) (value (or value (org-read-property-value property))) (fn (cdr (assoc property org-properties-postprocess-alist)))) (setq org-last-set-property property) (setq org-last-set-property-value (concat property ": " value)) (if fn (progn (setq value (funcall fn value)))) (if (equal (org-entry-get nil property) value) nil (org-entry-put nil property value)))
  org-set-property(nil nil)
  funcall-interactively(org-set-property nil nil)
  call-interactively(org-set-property nil nil)
  command-execute(org-set-property)

What is happening here? How do I set things right?

Improve this question
5
  • 1
    M-x toggle-debug-on-error and then trigger the error again, and copy and paste the stack trace into your question.
    – phils
    May 2, 2018 at 7:16
  • @phils Thanks. I have added the stack trace in the question.
    – deshmukh
    May 2, 2018 at 7:53
  • 1
    We might need to make that more detailed. Can you repeat that after using M-x load-library RET org.el RET (to load the uncompiled version of the library).
    – phils
    May 2, 2018 at 9:16
  • 1
    If you're able to replicate this using emacs -Q that's also useful information. And if you can show a sample file which causes the problem, even better.
    – phils
    May 2, 2018 at 9:17
  • @phils Thanks. Added the stack trace after M-x load-library RET org.el RET
    – deshmukh
    May 2, 2018 at 10:26

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

It looks like this could happen if your org file contained a malformed properties block, such that there is a start:

:PROPERTIES:

But no end:

:END:

That seems like a bug, although it might well be fixed already in newer versions.

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4
  • Thanks a ton. This, exactly, seems to be the problem. Every time I archive a heading with C-c $ in the Agenda View, it gets archived to the datetree (I have #+ARCHIVE: ::datetree/ at the top of the file) but the archived entry contains :PROPERTIES: drawer inside the :LOGBOOK: drawer. If I delete the datetree, I can set properties. How do I solve this problem with archiving? Do we continue the conversation here or do I ask a new question?
    – deshmukh
    May 3, 2018 at 6:42
  • I can't replicate that in Emacs 25.3 (org 8.2.10), and I see that in the newest version of org in GNU ELPA (9.1.12) it detects the issue and offers to repair the syntax. Which versions are you using?
    – phils
    May 3, 2018 at 7:45
  • Its emacs 25.2.2. M-x list-packages shows org 9.1.12 as an available package in gnu archive. No org package is shown as installed.
    – deshmukh
    May 3, 2018 at 11:07
  • 1
    OK. I tried isolating the problem by bisecting the org file. It was a large file so it took some time. But at last, I could identify a headline that did not have :END: followed by a :PROPERTY:. I am sorry not to have done that earlier. But I do not remember editing the file by hand. So, I thought such an error was unlikely.
    – deshmukh
    May 3, 2018 at 11:34

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