That is pretty strange. I used this to get a minimally working install of
org-ref. I deleted ~/.emacs.d, and ran emacs -q and then executed this code
block.

* installation

You need the dash package. Use these repositories, and  install dash.

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
  (require 'package)

  (setq package-archives
        '(("org"         . "http://orgmode.org/elpa/")
          ("gnu"         . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/")
          ("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/")
          ))
  (package-refresh-contents)
  (package-install 'dash)

  (org-babel-load-file "~/Dropbox/kitchingroup/jmax/org-ref.org")

  ;; this function is normally run as a hook. we run it manually here to
  ;; get started.
  (org-mode-reftex-setup)
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
: org-ref-insert-cite-link

After that, it works like I expect.

Your error seems to be coming from reftex. I wonder if you have something
set that is making it look for a TeX-master or something, which eventually
results in nil, which is failing here: re-search-forward(nil 10001 t). Or
maybe you need to set something to turn that off. Perhaps some default
changed?


John

-----------------------------------
John Kitchin
Associate Professor
Doherty Hall A207F
Department of Chemical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-268-7803
http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu



On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 4:17 AM, Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:

> John,
>
> I am in the process of bisecting my initialisation.  Something I have
> set definitely stops org (whether 8.2.5c which comes with emacs
> 24.4.50.2 or 8.2.6-958) from recognising cite:... etc. as links.
>
> However, I have been re-building up from no initialisation bit by
> bit.  Right from the start, I get the error I posted yesterday:
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument stringp nil)
>   re-search-forward(nil 10001 t)
>   tex-main-file()
>   reftex-TeX-master-file()
>   reftex-tie-multifile-symbols()
>   reftex-access-scan-info((16))
>   reftex-parse-all()
>   (and (buffer-file-name) (file-exists-p (buffer-file-name))
> (global-auto-revert-mode t) (reftex-parse-all))
>   org-mode-reftex-setup()
>   run-hooks(change-major-mode-after-body-hook text-mode-hook
> outline-mode-hook org-mode-hook)
>   apply(run-hooks (change-major-mode-after-body-hook text-mode-hook
> outline-mode-hook org-mode-hook))
>   run-mode-hooks(org-mode-hook)
>   org-mode()
>   set-auto-mode-0(org-mode nil)
>   set-auto-mode()
>   normal-mode(t)
>   after-find-file(nil t)
>   find-file-noselect-1(#<buffer t.org> "~/s/test/t.org" nil nil
> "~/synced/test/t.org" (10095713 2055))
>   find-file-noselect("~/s/test/t.org" nil nil t)
>   find-file("~/s/test/t.org" t)
>   call-interactively(find-file nil nil)
>   command-execute(find-file)
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
> This happens when I try to visit any org file *once* I have loaded
> org-ref the first time.  It doesn't happen before org-ref is loaded.
>
> I am starting to despair, I must admit!  I wonder if there is a conflict
> between Emacs 24.4.50 and org-ref?  Or do you have some other setting
> for reftex that is not the default?
>
> Anyway, I have to get some work done so I will do without org-ref for
> the time being.  I'll revisit later.
>
> thanks again for all your time,
> eric
>
> --
> : Eric S Fraga (0xFFFCF67D), Emacs 24.4.50.2, Org
> release_8.2.6-958-g7c8559-git
>