Error in custom eshell function (exit and close window)

Question

I got the below function from an article on howardism.org. Its purpose is to exit eshell and close the corresponding window.

;; GNU Emacs 26.3 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.10) of 2019-08-29
(defun eshell/x ()
  (insert "exit")
  (eshell-send-input)
  (delete-window))

(setq debug-on-error t)

Looked pretty straightforward to me. But when I start emacs -Q (See above code block for version info), then evaluate the above code and type x<RET> in an eshell window. I get the following:

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument integer-or-marker-p nil)
  eshell-lisp-command(eshell/x nil)
  eshell-plain-command("x" nil)
  eshell-named-command("x")
  (prog1 (eshell-named-command "x") (run-hooks (quote eshell-this-command-hook)))
  (condition-case err (prog1 (eshell-named-command "x") (run-hooks (quote eshell-this-command-hook))) ((debug error) (run-hooks (quote eshell-this-command-hook)) (eshell-errorn (error-message-string err)) (eshell-close-handles 1)))
  (condition-case-unless-debug err (prog1 (eshell-named-command "x") (run-hooks (quote eshell-this-command-hook))) (error (run-hooks (quote eshell-this-command-hook)) (eshell-errorn (error-message-string err)) (eshell-close-handles 1)))
  (eshell-condition-case err (prog1 (eshell-named-command "x") (run-hooks (quote eshell-this-command-hook))) (error (run-hooks (quote eshell-this-command-hook)) (eshell-errorn (error-message-string err)) (eshell-close-handles 1)))
  (let ((eshell-this-command-hook (quote (ignore)))) (eshell-condition-case err (prog1 (eshell-named-command "x") (run-hooks (quote eshell-this-command-hook))) (error (run-hooks (quote eshell-this-command-hook)) (eshell-errorn (error-message-string err)) (eshell-close-handles 1))))
  (eshell-trap-errors (eshell-named-command "x"))
  (progn (eshell-trap-errors (eshell-named-command "x")))
  (catch (quote top-level) (progn (eshell-trap-errors (eshell-named-command "x"))))
  (progn (run-hooks (quote eshell-pre-command-hook)) (catch (quote top-level) (progn (eshell-trap-errors (eshell-named-command "x")))) (run-hooks (quote eshell-post-command-hook)))
  (let ((eshell-current-handles (eshell-create-handles t (quote append))) eshell-current-subjob-p) (progn (run-hooks (quote eshell-pre-command-hook)) (catch (quote top-level) (progn (eshell-trap-errors (eshell-named-command "x")))) (run-hooks (quote eshell-post-command-hook))))
  (eshell-commands (progn (run-hooks (quote eshell-pre-command-hook)) (catch (quote top-level) (progn (eshell-trap-errors (eshell-named-command "x")))) (run-hooks (quote eshell-post-command-hook))))
  eval((eshell-commands (progn (run-hooks (quote eshell-pre-command-hook)) (catch (quote top-level) (progn (eshell-trap-errors (eshell-named-command "x")))) (run-hooks (quote eshell-post-command-hook)))))
  eshell-send-input(nil)
  funcall-interactively(eshell-send-input nil)
  call-interactively(eshell-send-input nil nil)
  command-execute(eshell-send-input)

Without debug-on-error the "Wrong type argument"-message ends up in the buffer I was working in when invoking eshell. To add to my confusion, this only happens the first time I call eshell/x. Stepping through the function with edebug suggests that the error occurs in neither of the functions called inside eshell/x as the debugger only starts after I stepped over the last function call. Also when changing the function to this

(defun eshell/x ()
  (insert "exit")
  (eshell-send-input)
  (delete-window)
  (message "done deleting window"))

The debugger only gets entered after "done deleting window" appeared in the echo area.

Now I don't know how to continue searching for the error. Can someone please help me identify the error?

Answer 1

With the default settings of eshell, typing the word "exit" in the *eshell* buffer, followed by the enter key, causes Emacs to execute the function eshell/exit. As such, the proposed approach set forth in the question above, i.e., by inserting the word "exit" and calling eshell-send-input, is probably not the best way to handle this.

So, let us start by examining the built-in function eshell/exit, which is essentially a one-liner. To do that, we evaluate (require 'eshell) with something like M-: (aka M-x eval-expression) ; or, we could copy/paste the (require 'eshell) statement to a *scratch* buffer and place our cursor just after the closing parenthesis and type C-x C-e. Then, we locate the function with M-x find-function RET eshell/exit RET -- it looks like this:

(defun eshell/exit ()
  "Leave or kill the Eshell buffer, depending on `eshell-kill-on-exit'."
  (throw 'eshell-terminal t))

Since it is just a one-liner, why not create our own function by simply changing the function name, like so?:

(defun eshell/x ()
  "Leave or kill the Eshell buffer, depending on `eshell-kill-on-exit'."
  (throw 'eshell-terminal t))

We decide to pay attention to the doc-string about the variable eshell-kill-on-exit and if we are curious, we type C-h v (aka M-x describe-variable) and look it up:

eshell-kill-on-exit is a variable defined in ‘esh-mode.el’.
Its value is t

Documentation:
If non-nil, kill the Eshell buffer on the ‘exit’ command.
Otherwise, the buffer will simply be buried.

You can customize this variable.

As luck would have it, we have the benefit of a similar thread which has an accepted answer:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51867693/emacs-eshell-kill-window-on-exit

So, we take the answer in that similar thread -- suggesting that we advise eshell-life-is-too-much, and we combine it with our new function eshell/x:

(require 'eshell)

(defun eshell/x ()
  (throw 'eshell-terminal t))

(defun my-custom-func () 
  (when (not (one-window-p))
    (delete-window)))

(advice-add 'eshell-life-is-too-much :after 'my-custom-func)