Couldn't find obvious defaults for: data-directory lisp-directory

[Mike Kupfer]

Binary package hint: cscope

I was installing the cscope package with Synaptic when it complained about an error. From Synaptic's log (below), it appears that the error is related to Emacs, possibly installing an Emacs front-end to cscope, but that's just a guess.

I currently have these Emacs-related packages installed: emacs22-bin-common, emacs22-common, emacs22-gtk, emacs23, emacsen-common, gnuserv, xemacs21, xemacs21-basesupport, xemacs21-bin, xemacs21-mule, xemacs21-mulesupport, xemacs21-nomule, xemacs21-support. I also have XEmacs 21.4.22 and 21.5.31 installed from source. The 21.4 stuff is in /usr/local and the 21.5 stuff is in /usr/new.

Synaptic log:
Selecting previously deselected package cscope.
(Reading database ... 269443 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking cscope (from .../cscope_15.7a-3_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up cscope (15.7a-3) ...
emacsen-common: Handling install of emacsen flavor emacs
emacsen-common: Handling install of emacsen flavor emacs22
emacsen-common: byte-compiling for emacs22
Wrote /etc/emacs22/site-start.d/00debian-vars.elc
Wrote /usr/share/emacs22/site-lisp/debian-startup.elc
emacsen-common: Handling install of emacsen flavor xemacs21
emacsen-common: byte-compiling for xemacs21

WARNING:
Couldn't find obvious defaults for:
data-directory
lisp-directory
Perhaps some directories don't exist, or the XEmacs executable,
/usr/bin/xemacs21
is in a strange place?Loading /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/debian-startup...
Loading 00debian...
Error while loading 00debian: Symbol's function definition is void: loop
Loading 00debian-vars...
No /etc/mailname. Reverting to default...
Loading 50a2ps...
Error while loading 50a2ps: Symbol's value as variable is void: a2ps-region
Loading 50autoconf...
Error while loading 50autoconf: No /usr/local/ prefixed paths in load-path
Loading 50ccrypt...
Loading 50dictionaries-common...
Error while loading 50dictionaries-common: No /usr/local/ prefixed paths in load-path
Loading 50git-core...
Symbol's function definition is void: batch-byte-compile
xemacs exiting
.
emacs-package-install: /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/install/emacsen-common xemacs21 emacs22 xemacs21 failed at /usr/lib/emacsen-common/emacs-package-install line 30, <TSORT> line 2.
dpkg: error processing cscope (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 255
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:
Setting up cscope (15.7a-3) ...
emacsen-common: Handling install of emacsen flavor emacs
emacsen-common: Handling install of emacsen flavor emacs22
emacsen-common: byte-compiling for emacs22
Wrote /etc/emacs22/site-start.d/00debian-vars.elc
Wrote /usr/share/emacs22/site-lisp/debian-startup.elc
emacsen-common: Handling install of emacsen flavor xemacs21
emacsen-common: byte-compiling for xemacs21

WARNING:
Couldn't find obvious defaults for:
data-directory
lisp-directory
Perhaps some directories don't exist, or the XEmacs executable,
/usr/bin/xemacs21
is in a strange place?Loading /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/debian-startup...
Loading 00debian...
Error while loading 00debian: Symbol's function definition is void: loop
Loading 00debian-vars...
No /etc/mailname. Reverting to default...
Loading 50a2ps...
Error while loading 50a2ps: Symbol's value as variable is void: a2ps-region
Loading 50autoconf...
Error while loading 50autoconf: No /usr/local/ prefixed paths in load-path
Loading 50ccrypt...
Loading 50dictionaries-common...
Error while loading 50dictionaries-common: No /usr/local/ prefixed paths in load-path
Loading 50git-core...
Symbol's function definition is void: batch-byte-compile
xemacs exiting
.
emacs-package-install: /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/install/emacsen-common xemacs21 emacs22 xemacs21 failed at /usr/lib/emacsen-common/emacs-package-install line 30, <TSORT> line 2.
dpkg: error processing cscope (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 255
Errors were encountered while processing:
 cscope

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: cscope 15.7a-3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-31.61-generic 2.6.32.32+drm33.14
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-31-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
AptOrdering:
 cscope: Install
 cscope: Configure
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat May 28 15:48:33 2011
ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 255
SourcePackage: cscope
Title: package cscope 15.7a-3 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 255

[Mike Kupfer (mkupfer37)]

The error left cscope in a failed-config state (although it worked fine for my purposes), and a subsequent update to an unrelated package produced the same error message. I didn't want to get in the habit of ignoring errors from the Update Manager, so I looked for a way to get cscope fully installed. Since I don't normally use the bundled XEmacs, I removed the xemacs21 packages (and gnuserv). dpkg now lists cscope as fully installed, and a subsequent update with the Update Manager completed without errors.

[era (era)]

Belatedly reassigning to xemacs21.

[era (era)]

http://calypso.tux.org/pipermail/xemacs-beta/2004-September/002738.html appears to explain what causes this symptom, but it is unclear, to say the least, what would cause a packaged xemacs21 to lose track of its installation location. Perhaps this is related to bug #467446 also?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[era (era)]

The obvious workaround for people who do not particularly require xemacs21 is to replace it with FSF Emacs, which presently receives a bit more attention from its maintainers. Try emacs23 or, if you have it available, emacs24.

[era (era)]

If you have xemacs21 installed from source, that's basically the culprit. Try to remove it from your PATH, or make sure it is correctly configured.

[Mike Kupfer (mkupfer37)]

As far as I know, the versions that are installed from source are correctly configured. I do have a wrapper script, though, for invoking XEmacs. I'll take a look at the postinstall script later this week to see if my wrapper could be confusing the postinstall script.

[era (era)]

The flurry of recent duplicates does suggest that there may be something wrong in the Ubuntu xemacs21 package, or in the supporting infrastructure (dpkg, emacsen-common, dictionaries-common, etc). I'm afraid I don't personally have the time to investigate this any further any time soon.

[era (era)]

Found a better upstream bug; updating bug watch. The Debian bug points to a recent change in emacsen-common as the cause for this, although it may well be that the change merely exposes a bug in xemacs21.

[Mike Kupfer (mkupfer37)]

I did a complete removal of cscope and reinstalled it. I can no longer reproduce the failure. (New computer, running 11.10.)

[Manfred Hampl (m-hampl)]

There is a question related to this bug, https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+question/214693

Executing the workaround as shown in http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=677191#50

sudo /usr/lib/emacsen-common/emacs-remove xemacs21
sudo apt-get install emacsen-common

apparently has helped in that case.

Can someone else with this bug try if that workaround helps also in other cases?

[Mike Kupfer (mkupfer37)]

I'm afraid I can no longer reproduce the failure, so I can't test the proposed workaround.