find-function broken: wrong path for some .el files, others are missing completely

[Jouni K. Seppänen]

In xemacs -q, using the command find-function with the arguments "find-file" and "find-function" results in the error messages

  The library "/build/buildd/xemacs21-21.4.17/lisp/files" is not in the path.
  The library "find-func" is not in the path.

The expected behaviour is to open the elisp files where these functions are defined at the point of definition.

In the first case, the correct file is /usr/share/xemacs-21.4.17/lisp/files.el.gz (and auto-compression-mode needs to be on to view it). In the second case, there does not seem to be any correct path, since find-func.elc is in xemacs21-basesupport, which only contains elc files, and there does not seem to be a corresponding xemacs21-basesupportel package.

dpkg -l xemacs21* reports:

Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-=======================-=======================-==============================================================
ii xemacs21 21.4.17-1 highly customizable text editor
ii xemacs21-basesupport 2004.08.18-2 Editor and kitchen sink -- compiled elisp support files
ii xemacs21-bin 21.4.17-1 highly customizable text editor -- support binaries
un xemacs21-gnome-mule <none> (no description available)
un xemacs21-gnome-mule-can <none> (no description available)
un xemacs21-gnome-nomule <none> (no description available)
ii xemacs21-mule 21.4.17-1 highly customizable text editor -- Mule binary
un xemacs21-mule-canna-wnn <none> (no description available)
ii xemacs21-mulesupport 2004.08.18-2 Editor and kitchen sink -- Mule elisp support files
un xemacs21-nomule <none> (no description available)
ii xemacs21-support 21.4.17-1 highly customizable text editor -- architecture independent su
ii xemacs21-supportel 21.4.17-1 highly customizable text editor -- non-required library files

[Martin Bergner (martin-bergner)]

Does this problem still exist with the latest version, and if yes, which version is that?

[Jouni K. Seppänen (jks)]

Yes, the problem is still there in dapper. To reproduce, start xemacs -q and type:
  M-x find-function RET find-file RET
Xemacs replies with:
  The library "/build/buildd/xemacs21-21.4.18/lisp/files" is not in the path.
Then type:
  M-x find-function RET find-function RET
XEmacs replies with:
  The library "find-func" is not in the path.

The versions of the various packages are:

ii xemacs21 21.4.18-1ubuntu1 highly customizable text editor
ii xemacs21-basesupport 2005.12.08-1ubuntu1 Editor and kitchen sink -- compiled elisp support files
ii xemacs21-bin 21.4.18-1ubuntu1 highly customizable text editor -- support binaries
ii xemacs21-mule 21.4.18-1ubuntu1 highly customizable text editor -- Mule binary
ii xemacs21-mulesupport 2005.12.08-1ubuntu1 Editor and kitchen sink -- Mule elisp support files
ii xemacs21-support 21.4.18-1ubuntu1 highly customizable text editor -- architecture independent supp
ii xemacs21-supportel 21.4.18-1ubuntu1 highly customizable text editor -- non-required library files

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Is this problem still reproducible in current 8.04 or 8.10 alpha?

[gil (gilbert-laycock)]

It still happens in 8.04, exactly as described (except that xemacs is 21.4.21 instead of 21.4.18).

[Jouni K. Seppänen (jks)]

It happens in 8.10 too, with the same error messages except for the version number. Now there actually is a xemacs21-basesupport-el package, which I have installed:

||/ Name Version Description
+++-==========================================-===========================================-============================================
ii xemacs21 21.4.21-4ubuntu1 highly customizable text editor
ii xemacs21-basesupport 2007.04.27-1 Editor and kitchen sink -- compiled elisp su
ii xemacs21-basesupport-el 2007.04.27-1 Editor and kitchen sink -- source elisp supp
ii xemacs21-bin 21.4.21-4ubuntu1 highly customizable text editor -- support b
un xemacs21-gnome-mule <none> (no description available)
un xemacs21-gnome-mule-canna-wnn <none> (no description available)
un xemacs21-gnome-nomule <none> (no description available)
ii xemacs21-mule 21.4.21-4ubuntu1 highly customizable text editor -- Mule bina
un xemacs21-mule-canna-wnn <none> (no description available)
ii xemacs21-mulesupport 2007.04.27-1 Editor and kitchen sink -- Mule elisp suppor
un xemacs21-nomule <none> (no description available)
ii xemacs21-support 21.4.21-4ubuntu1 highly customizable text editor -- architect
ii xemacs21-supportel 21.4.21-4ubuntu1 highly customizable text editor -- non-requi

...so the correct file in the second case would be /usr/share/xemacs21/xemacs-packages/lisp/xemacs-devel/find-func.el.gz, but it still says 'The library "find-func" is not in the path.'

[Ralf W. (daphcnual)]

As a work-around I added the following lines to find-function-search-for-symbol:

    (if (string-match "\/\\([^\/]+\\)$" library)
        (setq library (substring library (match-beginning 1)))
        )

directly behind

    (if (string-match "\\.el\\(c\\)\\'" library)
 (setq library (substring library 0 (match-beginning 1))))

Works only with unix paths, but that's enough for me.
Maybe it's useful for somebody

RAlf

[rusivi2 (rusivi2-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for reporting this bug.

Does this occur in Lucid?

[era (era)]

rusivi1: please refrain from spamming. xemacs hasn't had a major update since the case was submitted, and the case contains clear enough repro instructions (in comment #2).

Just for the record, reproduced out of the box in Maverick live CD from Aug 24th (xemacs21 21.4.22-3.1ubuntu1)

[rusivi2 (rusivi2-deactivatedaccount)]

era:

Thank you for working on this. Marking confirmed as per your post.