CRITICAL **: e_sexp_eval: assertion `f->tree != NULL' failed

[Jani Uusitalo]

After commenting out the one line in my (/usr/share/doc/devilspie/README-suggested test) script, devilspie gets an assertion failure when reading it.

jani@saegusa:~$ cat .devilspie/test.ds
;(debug)
jani@saegusa:~$ devilspie
got eof

** (devilspie:7126): CRITICAL **: e_sexp_eval: assertion `f->tree != NULL' failed

** (devilspie:7126): CRITICAL **: e_sexp_eval: assertion `f->tree != NULL' failed

** (devilspie:7126): CRITICAL **: e_sexp_eval: assertion `f->tree != NULL' failed

** (devilspie:7126): CRITICAL **: e_sexp_eval: assertion `f->tree != NULL' failed

** (devilspie:7126): CRITICAL **: e_sexp_eval: assertion `f->tree != NULL' failed

** (devilspie:7126): CRITICAL **: e_sexp_eval: assertion `f->tree != NULL' failed

** (devilspie:7126): CRITICAL **: e_sexp_eval: assertion `f->tree != NULL' failed

** (devilspie:7126): CRITICAL **: e_sexp_eval: assertion `f->tree != NULL' failed

** (devilspie:7126): CRITICAL **: e_sexp_eval: assertion `f->tree != NULL' failed

According to Debian's bug report [1] on the issue, this occurs for all semantically empty scripts.

*[1] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=412042

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: devilspie 0.22-2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-34.55~precise1-generic 3.5.7.13
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-34-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.3
Architecture: amd64
CheckboxSubmission: 09ae689090491ca53449589269e4bfd8
CheckboxSystem: edda5d4f616ca792bf437989cb597002
Date: Fri Jun 14 10:14:26 2013
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
MarkForUpload: True
SourcePackage: devilspie
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2011-11-21 (571 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[J G Miller (jgmiller)]

"this occurs for all semantically empty scripts."

In fact the bug is more extensive.

The critical error message occurs for every file it reads unless each file contains one and ONLY one valid s-expression.

As observed, empty files or files with commented out expressions produce it, as do files which contain more than one s-expression. I discovered the latter by trying to put two valid rules in one file and wondered why I was getting all these "critical" messages.

So even wanting to go into debug mode means putting debug into its own debug.ds file.