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