Questions tagged [debugging]
Debugging is a methodical process of finding and reducing the number of bugs, or defects, in a computer program.
292
questions
49
votes
9answers
24k views
Using Emacs as a full-featured C/C++ IDE
I have been trying off and on for over a year now to use Emacs as a C/C++ IDE. I have only been marginally successful thus far, but have run into a few brick walls along the way. Currently I am ...
46
votes
2answers
6k views
Debugging a frozen Emacs
I am using mew for my e-mail. I need to use TLS with my email provider for SMTP. However, when I try to invoke that, Emacs freezes.
I would like to take this opportunity to learn more about Emacs ...
43
votes
2answers
8k views
What do I do when Emacs is frozen? [duplicate]
What should I do when Emacs stops responding?
My current "emacs-is-frozen" protocol looks like this:
Spam C-g (it sometimes works)
Wait for a while.
pkill -9 emacs
What alternate steps could I try ...
21
votes
1answer
2k views
How do I troubleshoot Emacs problems?
In a situation where Emacs is not behaving like I want, what can I do to troubleshoot the problem? What steps can I take to find and fix the problem myself?
Or, failing that, how can I gather useful ...
17
votes
1answer
709 views
Interrupt evaluation and observe current stack in the emacs-lisp debugger?
If some emacs-lisp function, such as a major mode hook, is taking longer than expected to execute, I would sometimes like to interrupt it and look at the current stack. Ideally, I'd also like to be ...
17
votes
0answers
1k views
How can I debug random Emacs server crashes?
I generally have a long-running instance of emacs --daemon, which I connect to with various emacsclients. Recently I have started experiencing random crashes. I say "random" because I haven't been ...
16
votes
1answer
2k views
How do I debug an emacs crash?
I am debugging why emacs crashes when using a function from a package1. The aim of this debug process is to get useful data to submit using M-x report-emacs-bug.
To get help on how to debug emacs ...
15
votes
3answers
3k views
Show line number on error
Say that emacs throws some error that I don't understand. Or maybe the error says "Symbol's value as variable is void: modes", but there are many occurrences of the symbol modes in my code, so I need ...
13
votes
2answers
1k views
How to cancel `edebug-defun`?
How do I undo the effects of edebug-defun? In other words, how do I rescind the directive that causes edebug to enter debugging mode when a particular function is invoked?
Also, I'd really like to ...
13
votes
2answers
1k views
How to kill a buffer when it causes Emacs to stop responding? [duplicate]
I use Emacs Dired to manage files. Accidentally, I hit Enter on an image file, Emacs tries to open the image and stop response. Is there a way to kill this process?
(Since I am running other ...
12
votes
1answer
537 views
Get backtrace from error programmatically
If an error is signalled in Emacs Lisp code, and debug-on-error is t, I get a backtrace buffer that makes it easy to figure out where the error occurred. However, for errors that occur while ...
10
votes
1answer
634 views
Find elisp origin of warning
I ran a command and received a warning in the minibuffer.
The exact warning was comint-completion-at-point failed to return valid completion data, after I autocompleted a command in shell-mode.
How ...
10
votes
1answer
307 views
How to debug errors in sentinels and during font-lock
When an error occurs inside a process sentinel or during font-locking, then Emacs doesn't show a backtrace even though debug-on-error was previously enabled.
I understand why these errors are caught, ...
10
votes
1answer
788 views
How to find out where a function is called from (backtrace/stacktrace)?
I've hit a problem that region is deactivated (in transient-mark-mode). The function deactivate-mark is called and I would like to find out where (and why) it is called from.
I tried M-x debug-on-...
9
votes
2answers
744 views
Better debugging of crashing Emacs?
Although Emacs (24.3.93.1) runs fine if launched from the Finder, if the terminal version is launched:
/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs -nw
Emacs crashes with:
Fatal error 11: ...
9
votes
2answers
743 views
Navigate to the source code of built-in functions and variables
Throughout the day I am constantly using C-h f or C-h v (describe-function and describe-variable) to look up documentation for functions and variables. More often than not, if I don't get all the ...
9
votes
1answer
1k views
How to compile emacs with debug symbols?
I'm having trouble walking through emacs source code in gdb. I think I'm missing debug symbols.
Following a suggestion from https://stackoverflow.com/a/4298982/2752242, I tried:
./configure CFLAGS="...
9
votes
0answers
456 views
Edebug orgmode source code blocks with input variables
What is the standard method to debug emacs-lisp orgmode source code blocks with input variables as header arguments?
I found the hacky solution to insert the following snipped in front of a source ...
8
votes
2answers
5k views
debugging some elisp — “end of file during parsing error” in init.el
After a long debugging of my init.el file, it looks like the first line of the following elisp-code, i.e (custom-set-variablesis provoking an 'End of file during parsing' error) which I absolutely don'...
8
votes
2answers
3k views
How do you configure emacs for julia?
What is a recomended way for making emacs as julia code editor? The things which I would like to have are:
autocomplete
julia shell in emacs with abbility to send the code from buffer
debugging
7
votes
2answers
173 views
Why expression fails in init file, but works fine during session [duplicate]
I want to understand why an expression of the form
(load-theme 'my-kewl-theme t)
fails1 when run as the last expression in my init (~/.emacs) file, but works fine if I evaluate it as soon as soon as ...
7
votes
1answer
3k views
How to fix “Symbol's function definition is void: org-babel-get-header”
How do you trouble shoot this? (trying to run a sh block async)
#+BEGIN_SRC sh
/tmp/7.sh ...
7
votes
3answers
480 views
how to get Emacs to locate the error in my init file without relaunching?
When there's an error in one of my init files, I get a vague message like this when I launch Emacs:
Warning (initialization): An error occurred while loading /Users/im/.emacs.d/init.elc:
(wrong-type-...
7
votes
2answers
700 views
How to debug Helm
I am having some trouble with helm, so I have set debug-on-error in an effort to locate the problem. Now whenever the problem occurs, the *Backtrace* buffer appears as expected, but I am still in one ...
6
votes
3answers
4k views
How to debug startup problem, if `--debug-init' has no effect
When I launch Emacs24 (in an Ubuntu machine) I get an error message in the init procedure.
Warning (initialization): An error occurred while loading `/home/nivaca/.emacs':
But when I launch it with ...
6
votes
1answer
120 views
Surprisingly persistent local variable
A local variable keeps coming back, and I know not whence.
In a certain buffer,
TeX-command-extra-options is "--synctex=1", even after I have removed
this from my init.el and restarted Emacs.
I tried ...
6
votes
1answer
2k views
How to fix this startup package initialization problem?
All of a sudden Emacs returns an error at the startup, when I run $ emacs --debug-init from the terminal (linux) I get this debug error message:
Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument ...
6
votes
4answers
1k views
Debugging slowness in init file (not hostname related)
I am seeing some slowness in my init file loading:
$ time emacs --debug-init -eval '(kill-emacs)' -Q
real 0m0.672s
user 0m0.338s
sys 0m0.057s
$ time emacs --debug-init --eval '(kill-emacs)...
6
votes
1answer
106 views
Can emacs auto-save backtrace?
Trying to debug a problem with debug-on-error. Backtrace appears for a second and then some other parts of the system make it disappear and emacs becomes dysfunctional so I can never read it.
Is ...
6
votes
1answer
1k views
How do I change the working directory used by pdb/gud?
When running M-x pdb from Emacs, the current directory seems to be set to that of the directory of the script you are running, so
pdb ~/path/to/project/__main__.py
Would set the working directory ...
5
votes
2answers
408 views
How to visit file containing source code for a given function?
To open a buffer on the source code for a command definition, I usually follow a convoluted procedure something like this:
Guess the name of the mode from the function name
Guess the name of an elisp ...
5
votes
1answer
3k views
Wrong number of arguments on lambda key binding
I am not able to figure out what is wrong in this elisp form:
(define-key ggtags-mode-map (kbd "M-.")
(lambda ()
(interactive)
(ggtags-find-tag-dwim)
(recenter)))
I keep getting this ...
5
votes
3answers
3k views
'wrong-type-argument stringp nil' Error With org-babel-load-file Function
I'm following the tutorial here to implement my init.el file in org mode. I therefore cleaned out my init.el file and added this only:
(require 'org)
(org-babel-load-file
(expand-file-name "emacs-...
5
votes
3answers
1k views
How do I debug an “Invalid face reference: quote” message?
After using Emacs for some time, the message Invalid face reference: quote starts popping up in my message buffer. I'm not sure what causes it to start appearing.
debug-on-message doesn't do anything ...
5
votes
1answer
665 views
Is it possible to get stack trace of currently running code? Or profile? Or how do you diagnose „hangs”
I look for ideas, how to diagnose reason of Emacs freezes (by which I mean taking 100% CPU and being irresponsive for some time). This question is not about any specific case¹ but about approach…
Is ...
5
votes
1answer
705 views
How to better debug Emacs CPU management?
I can't remember since when exactly, but Emacs is getting slow with basic operations (moving cursor around). It's not exactly slow, but feeling laggy.
Before I try and halven my configuration files ...
5
votes
2answers
744 views
How to set gud gdb -i=mi not to replace current buffer?
When using gdb -i=mi to debug a program, I typically split the window into two buffers vertically. But every time my program prints something gud automatically replaces my source code buffer with I/O ...
5
votes
3answers
91 views
Is there any setting in Emacs to choose perlbrew over perl?
I have a Perl project (developed in Ubuntu 14.04) which cannot be built on perl 5.18.2, but it works on Perlbrew 5.22.0. I have tried to use M-x perldb in Emacs but it looks like Emacs calls Perl 5.18....
5
votes
0answers
507 views
Display all local variables within a edebug session
When using edebug one can get a local variable by command describe-variable (C-h v), but are there any ways to display all local variables?
For example in Python you can call locals() in a pdb ...
5
votes
0answers
68 views
How to investigate “color bleeding”?
I frequently have color-bleed issues in emacs, most often with AUCTeX: all of a sudden and for no apparent reason, the line I'm writing will be fontified as math.
First things first: no, I do not ...
4
votes
1answer
763 views
Recentf doesn't remember all files
I have the following problem with recentf. If I open a file from commandline like emacs myfile the file myfile doesn't appear in the list of recently opened files (I also checked directly the file ....
4
votes
2answers
389 views
How to write assertions
How does one write assertions in Emacs Lisp? I know that cl-macs.el has cl-assert and cl-check-type, but I'm wondering if there's a native Emacs way to perform something that basic.
4
votes
1answer
340 views
Why did I get an error message: wrong-type-argument stringp user-init-file
I have (set-register ?E '(file . user-init-file)), so that I can easily jump to my config file. Previously I used a string to specify the path to my init file, but I figured I'd tidy it up a bit.
...
4
votes
2answers
693 views
Can't get out of minibuffer completion
Since upgrading from v. 24 to v. 25 [OSX 10.11.6] I find myself frequently fighting with minibuffer completion, as typing a tab after doing switch-to-buffer. ^G just beeps, and the completions ...
4
votes
2answers
962 views
Python remote debugging?
How do I debug remote python/twisted code from within Emacs?
The closest I got with an internet search was Geben, if I understand correctly, but it has not been maintained for a few years now.
4
votes
1answer
763 views
how to increase the debugging message level
I believe that there is a way to increase the debug level, but I don't recall how. Perhaps I am using the wrong terms, but web searches and looking on StackExchange are not providing me anything ...
4
votes
0answers
273 views
list of current variables in a buffer for Python code
I would like to find a way to reproduce the "Workspace" of Matlab or the equivalent "Variables" window of the awesome pudb debugger directly in emacs for python code: it is a window which details the ...
4
votes
0answers
251 views
Quitting emacs is very slow
Quitting my Emacs takes a really long time.
Is there a good way to track what's happening while quitting Emacs?
(So far I'm turning to git blame to figure out what changes I have made to cause this ...
3
votes
2answers
520 views
Tracking down a write to a variable
Something setqs desktop-dirname to nil after my "init.el" is loaded.
I want to track down the offending code.
Just before the end of "init.el", desktop-dirname is correctly set.
I checked run-hooks ...
3
votes
1answer
121 views
detecting obsolete/deprecated settings in elisp files, particularly .emacs
I recently got bitten by a deprecated setting breaking a new package I was trying to use.
The same behaviour had been reported by a number of users before me,
but the authors were unable to reproduce ...
