Bug: org-agenda-highlight-todo: Symbol’s function definition is void: string-empty-p [9.4.6 (9.4.6-11-g1ee52c-elpa @ /home/vmg/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20210726/)]

Bug: org-agenda-highlight-todo: Symbol’s function definition is void: string-empty-p [9.4.6 (9.4.6-11-g1ee52c-elpa @ /home/vmg/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20210726/)]

[Вячеслав Гришин]

Remember to cover the basics, that is, what you expected to happen and
what in fact did happen.  You don't know how to make a good report?  See

     https://orgmode.org/manual/Feedback.html#Feedback

Your bug report will be posted to the Org mailing list.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

	1.

 I updated orgmode package and trying to org-agenda-list, as usual. But failed with mistake  — org-agenda-list was empty.
 After investigation, I took advice to put this:

	;; NB If you want to use this library, it's almost always correct to use:
	(eval-when-compile (require 'subr-x))

 in the beginning of .emacs. And it worked. Org-agenda-list was fine.

 The org-agenda-highlight-todo function (org-agenda.el file) uses the
 string-empty-p function from the emacs-lisp/subr-x.el module, but
 somewhere is not done (require ' subr-x), so when calling the
 org-agenda-highlight-todo function, string-empty-p is not defined,
 which leads to an error — org-agenda-highlight-todo: Symbol’s function
 definition is void: string-empty-p

	2.

 For checking I called the emacs -Q and put in it scratch:
	(string-empty-p "test")
	(require 'subr-x)
 Then I executed the command
	C-x C-e
 on
	(require 'subr-x)
 output was
	Debugger entered--Lisp error: (void-function string-empty-p)
	(string-empty-p "test")
	eval((string-empty-p "test") nil)
	elisp--eval-last-sexp(nil)
	eval-last-sexp(nil)
	funcall-interactively(eval-last-sexp nil)
	call-interactively(eval-last-sexp nil nil)
	command-execute(eval-last-sexp)


Emacs  : GNU Emacs 26.3 (build 2, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.14)
 of 2020-03-26, modified by Debian
Package: Org mode version 9.4.6 (9.4.6-11-g1ee52c-elpa @ /home/vmg/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20210726/)

current state:
==============
(setq
 org-src-mode-hook '(org-src-babel-configure-edit-buffer org-src-mode-configure-edit-buffer)
 org-link-shell-confirm-function 'yes-or-no-p
 org-metadown-hook '(org-babel-pop-to-session-maybe)
 org-clock-out-hook '(org-clock-remove-empty-clock-drawer)
 org-agenda-files '("~/Общедоступные/Процесс/Обеспечение.org" "~/Общедоступные/Процесс/Механизатор.org"
		    "~/Общедоступные/Процесс/Токарь.org")
 org-mode-hook '(#[0 "\300\301\302\303\304$\207" [add-hook change-major-mode-hook org-show-all append local] 5]
		 #[0 "\300\301\302\303\304$\207"
		   [add-hook change-major-mode-hook org-babel-show-result-all append local] 5]
		 org-babel-result-hide-spec org-babel-hide-all-hashes)
 org-archive-hook '(org-attach-archive-delete-maybe)
 org-confirm-elisp-link-function 'yes-or-no-p
 org-startup-with-inline-images t
 org-agenda-before-write-hook '(org-agenda-add-entry-text)
 org-metaup-hook '(org-babel-load-in-session-maybe)
 org-bibtex-headline-format-function #[257 "\300\x01\236A\207" [:title] 3 "\n\n(fn ENTRY)"]
 org-babel-pre-tangle-hook '(save-buffer)
 org-tab-first-hook '(org-babel-hide-result-toggle-maybe org-babel-header-arg-expand)
 org-log-done 'note
 org-agenda-loop-over-headlines-in-active-region nil
 org-occur-hook '(org-first-headline-recenter)
 org-cycle-hook '(org-cycle-hide-archived-subtrees org-cycle-hide-drawers org-cycle-show-empty-lines
		  org-optimize-window-after-visibility-change)
 org-todo-keywords '((sequence "ИСПОЛНИТЬ" "|" "ИСПОЛНЕНО" "ОТМЕНЕНО" "ОСТАНОВЛЕНО"))
 org-speed-command-hook '(org-speed-command-activate org-babel-speed-command-activate)
 org-display-remote-inline-images 'download
 org-export-before-parsing-hook '(org-attach-expand-links)
 org-confirm-shell-link-function 'yes-or-no-p
 org-link-parameters '(("attachment" :follow org-attach-follow :complete org-attach-complete-link)
		       ("id" :follow org-id-open) ("eww" :follow org-eww-open :store org-eww-store-link)
		       ("rmail" :follow org-rmail-open :store org-rmail-store-link)
		       ("mhe" :follow org-mhe-open :store org-mhe-store-link)
		       ("irc" :follow org-irc-visit :store org-irc-store-link :export org-irc-export)
		       ("info" :follow org-info-open :export org-info-export :store org-info-store-link)
		       ("gnus" :follow org-gnus-open :store org-gnus-store-link)
		       ("docview" :follow org-docview-open :export org-docview-export :store org-docview-store-link)
		       ("bibtex" :follow org-bibtex-open :store org-bibtex-store-link)
		       ("bbdb" :follow org-bbdb-open :export org-bbdb-export :complete org-bbdb-complete-link :store
			org-bbdb-store-link)
		       ("w3m" :store org-w3m-store-link) ("file+sys") ("file+emacs")
		       ("shell" :follow org-link--open-shell)
		       ("news" :follow #[514 "\301\300\302\x04Q\x02\"\207" ["news" browse-url ":"] 6 "\n\n(fn URL ARG)"])
		       ("mailto" :follow
			#[514 "\301\300\302\x04Q\x02\"\207" ["mailto" browse-url ":"] 6 "\n\n(fn URL ARG)"])
		       ("https" :follow
			#[514 "\301\300\302\x04Q\x02\"\207" ["https" browse-url ":"] 6 "\n\n(fn URL ARG)"])
		       ("http" :follow #[514 "\301\300\302\x04Q\x02\"\207" ["http" browse-url ":"] 6 "\n\n(fn URL ARG)"])
		       ("ftp" :follow #[514 "\301\300\302\x04Q\x02\"\207" ["ftp" browse-url ":"] 6 "\n\n(fn URL ARG)"])
		       ("help" :follow org-link--open-help) ("file" :complete org-link-complete-file)
		       ("elisp" :follow org-link--open-elisp) ("doi" :follow org-link--open-doi))
 org-link-elisp-confirm-function 'yes-or-no-p
 org-todo-keyword-faces '(("ИСПОЛНИТЬ" :background "red1" :foreground "black" :weight bold :box
			   (:line-width 2 :style released-button))
			  ("ИСПОЛНЕНО" :background "green" :foreground "black" :weight bold :box
			   (:line-width 2 :style released-button))
			  ("ОТМЕНЕНО" :background "gray" :foreground "black" :weight bold :box
			   (:line-width 2 :style released-button))
			  ("ОСТАНОВЛЕНО" :background "blue" :foreground "black" :weight bold :box
			   (:line-width 2 :style released-button))
			  )
 )

Re: Bug: org-agenda-highlight-todo: Symbol’s function definition is void: string-empty-p [9.4.6 (9.4.6-11-g1ee52c-elpa @ /home/vmg/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20210726/)]

[Tim Cross]

Вячеслав Гришин <w201403@ya.ru> writes:

> Remember to cover the basics, that is, what you expected to happen and
> what in fact did happen.  You don't know how to make a good report?  See
>
>      https://orgmode.org/manual/Feedback.html#Feedback
>
> Your bug report will be posted to the Org mailing list.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 	1.
>
>  I updated orgmode package and trying to org-agenda-list, as usual. But failed with mistake  — org-agenda-list was empty.
>  After investigation, I took advice to put this:
>
> 	;; NB If you want to use this library, it's almost always correct to use:
> 	(eval-when-compile (require 'subr-x))
>
>  in the beginning of .emacs. And it worked. Org-agenda-list was fine.

I suspect that adding that line has actually hidden a larger problem.
The above line is essentially telling emacs to load the subr-x package
when your compiling an emacs-lisp file. However, your not compiling your
.emacs file, so this will not have any effect unless your compiling your
.emacs file. It is rarely worthwhile compiling your init file. Far
better off to keep your init file relatively small and pushing
complex/large configuration stuff into separate files which can be
compiled. There are a number of complications you often need to deal
with when compiling your init file and dealing with these often adds
enough complexity to outweigh the any benefits to startup time, which
are typically very small anyway.  

The symptoms you are seeing are frequently seen with a broken org
install. This can easily happen if you attempt to upgrade org when you
already have org functions loaded. Basic problem is that you end up with
a broken mixed installation with parts from the old version and parts
from the upgraded version.

Note that if the issue was as you described, many people would be
experiencing this bug, but they aren't. This suggests the problem is
local to your setup.  

I would remove the upgraded org package and try re-installing. However,
it is really important to make sure your .emacs does not call any org
functions because this will load org during startup and then when you
attempt to upgrade the package, you will get the same issue. This may
require some re-organisation of your .emacs file - possibly wrapping org
related code in an eval-after-load or using something like use-package
etc.

An easy way to verify which avoids large refactoring of your init file
would be to comment out any org related configuration from your init
file, restart emacs. upgrade org, uncomment what you commented and then
restart emacs. 

>
>  The org-agenda-highlight-todo function (org-agenda.el file) uses the
>  string-empty-p function from the emacs-lisp/subr-x.el module, but
>  somewhere is not done (require ' subr-x), so when calling the
>  org-agenda-highlight-todo function, string-empty-p is not defined,
>  which leads to an error — org-agenda-highlight-todo: Symbol’s function
>  definition is void: string-empty-p
>
> 	2.
>
>  For checking I called the emacs -Q and put in it scratch:
> 	(string-empty-p "test")
> 	(require 'subr-x)
>  Then I executed the command
> 	C-x C-e
>  on
> 	(require 'subr-x)
>  output was
> 	Debugger entered--Lisp error: (void-function string-empty-p)
> 	(string-empty-p "test")

When you did C-x C-e, either you evaluated the first sexp or it tried to
evaluate all sexps in the scratch buffer, calling string-empty-p first
and before require 'subr-x, so the library was not yet loaded and the
function was not found. the require needs to be before functions from
the required library are called. 

[PATCH] org-agenda.el: Avoid dependency on subr-x

[Maxim Nikulin]

* lisp/org-agenda.el (org-agenda-highlight-todo): Do not use `string-empty-p'.

Restore compatibility with Emacs-24.3.
---
 lisp/org-agenda.el | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/lisp/org-agenda.el b/lisp/org-agenda.el
index c3fbabc01..b6cd895bc 100644
--- a/lisp/org-agenda.el
+++ b/lisp/org-agenda.el
@@ -7080,7 +7080,7 @@ The optional argument TYPE tells the agenda type."
 	    (setq x
 		  (concat
 		   (substring x 0 (match-end 1))
-                   (unless (string-empty-p org-agenda-todo-keyword-format)
+                   (unless (string= org-agenda-todo-keyword-format "")
 		     (format org-agenda-todo-keyword-format
 			     (match-string 2 x)))
                    ;; Remove `display' property as the icon could leak
-- 
2.25.1

Bug: org-agenda-highlight-todo: Symbol’s function definition is void: string-empty-p [9.4.6 (9.4.6-11-g1ee52c-elpa @ /home/vmg/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20210726/)]

[Вячеслав Гришин]

I am grateful to you for your explanations and patience with my inexperience.
I made several mistakes, the main one being haste. I should have checked my emacs first..
The fact is that, in addition to the built-in version of orgmode, for some reason I installed another one.
Your recommendation helped: when I removed the extra (newer) version of Orgmode and removed the extraneous code from .emacs, everything worked.
Thank you for helping me master emacs — it is incredibly useful and hardly replaceable.


> I suspect that adding that line has actually hidden a larger problem.
> The above line is essentially telling emacs to load the subr-x package
> when your compiling an emacs-lisp file. However, your not compiling your
> .emacs file, so this will not have any effect unless your compiling your
> .emacs file. It is rarely worthwhile compiling your init file. Far
> better off to keep your init file relatively small and pushing
> complex/large configuration stuff into separate files which can be
> compiled. There are a number of complications you often need to deal
> with when compiling your init file and dealing with these often adds
> enough complexity to outweigh the any benefits to startup time, which
> are typically very small anyway.  
> 
> The symptoms you are seeing are frequently seen with a broken org
> install. This can easily happen if you attempt to upgrade org when you
> already have org functions loaded. Basic problem is that you end up with
> a broken mixed installation with parts from the old version and parts
> from the upgraded version.
> 
> Note that if the issue was as you described, many people would be
> experiencing this bug, but they aren't. This suggests the problem is
> local to your setup.  
> 
> I would remove the upgraded org package and try re-installing. However,
> it is really important to make sure your .emacs does not call any org
> functions because this will load org during startup and then when you
> attempt to upgrade the package, you will get the same issue. This may
> require some re-organisation of your .emacs file - possibly wrapping org
> related code in an eval-after-load or using something like use-package
> etc.
> 
> An easy way to verify which avoids large refactoring of your init file
> would be to comment out any org related configuration from your init
> file, restart emacs. upgrade org, uncomment what you commented and then
> restart emacs. 
> 
>>
>>  The org-agenda-highlight-todo function (org-agenda.el file) uses the
>>  string-empty-p function from the emacs-lisp/subr-x.el module, but
>>  somewhere is not done (require ' subr-x), so when calling the
>>  org-agenda-highlight-todo function, string-empty-p is not defined,
>>  which leads to an error — org-agenda-highlight-todo: Symbol’s function
>>  definition is void: string-empty-p
>>
>> 	2.
>>
>>  For checking I called the emacs -Q and put in it scratch:
>> 	(string-empty-p "test")
>> 	(require 'subr-x)
>>  Then I executed the command
>> 	C-x C-e
>>  on
>> 	(require 'subr-x)
>>  output was
>> 	Debugger entered--Lisp error: (void-function string-empty-p)
>> 	(string-empty-p "test")
> 
> When you did C-x C-e, either you evaluated the first sexp or it tried to
> evaluate all sexps in the scratch buffer, calling string-empty-p first
> and before require 'subr-x, so the library was not yet loaded and the
> function was not found. the require needs to be before functions from
> the required library are called. 
> 

[PATCH] org-agenda.el: Avoid dependency on subr-x

[Вячеслав Гришин]

Thank you very much, Maxim. Now I don't know if I need to do something extra, because the problem arose because of my mistake.
When I removed the second version of Org and the extra code from .emacs, everything worked. I don't know how to explain it, because I'm just starting to learn emacs and lisp

On 04.08.2021 18:20, Maxim Nikulin wrote:
> * lisp/org-agenda.el (org-agenda-highlight-todo): Do not use `string-empty-p'.
> 
> Restore compatibility with Emacs-24.3.
> ---
>  lisp/org-agenda.el | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/lisp/org-agenda.el b/lisp/org-agenda.el
> index c3fbabc01..b6cd895bc 100644
> --- a/lisp/org-agenda.el
> +++ b/lisp/org-agenda.el
> @@ -7080,7 +7080,7 @@ The optional argument TYPE tells the agenda type."
>  	    (setq x
>  		  (concat
>  		   (substring x 0 (match-end 1))
> -                   (unless (string-empty-p org-agenda-todo-keyword-format)
> +                   (unless (string= org-agenda-todo-keyword-format "")
>  		     (format org-agenda-todo-keyword-format
>  			     (match-string 2 x)))
>                     ;; Remove `display' property as the icon could leak
> 

Re: [PATCH] org-agenda.el: Avoid dependency on subr-x

[Tim Cross]

Note that compatibility with 24.3 was not the cause of the OP original
issue (they were running 26.3).

Do we really want to maintain compatibility with Emacs 24.3? That
version was released over 8 years ago and I suspect there are other
areas of org which are not compatible with that version. Note also that
the subr-x and string-empty-p were introduced in Emacs 24.4. If we are
going to support Emacs 24, I think it is reasonable it be 24.4 rather
than aiming for all 24 releases.

I don't think this patch is required, especially since we have not had
any bug reported relating to that version. 

Maxim Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> writes:

> * lisp/org-agenda.el (org-agenda-highlight-todo): Do not use `string-empty-p'.
>
> Restore compatibility with Emacs-24.3.
> ---
>  lisp/org-agenda.el | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/lisp/org-agenda.el b/lisp/org-agenda.el
> index c3fbabc01..b6cd895bc 100644
> --- a/lisp/org-agenda.el
> +++ b/lisp/org-agenda.el
> @@ -7080,7 +7080,7 @@ The optional argument TYPE tells the agenda type."
>  	    (setq x
>  		  (concat
>  		   (substring x 0 (match-end 1))
> -                   (unless (string-empty-p org-agenda-todo-keyword-format)
> +                   (unless (string= org-agenda-todo-keyword-format "")
>  		     (format org-agenda-todo-keyword-format
>  			     (match-string 2 x)))
>                     ;; Remove `display' property as the icon could leak

Re: [PATCH] org-agenda.el: Avoid dependency on subr-x

[Maxim Nikulin]

The patch is created for the maint branch.

I have reordered some part of the quoted message.

On 05/08/2021 05:11, Tim Cross wrote:
 > I don't think this patch is required, especially since we have not had
 > any bug reported relating to that version.

org-agenda.el (and some other files) should be fixed anyway.

make single
...
Compiling single /home/ubuntu/org-mode/lisp/org-agenda.el...

In end of data:
org-agenda.el:10769:1:Warning: the function ‘string-empty-p’ is not known to
     be defined.

(log for emacs-25.2.2)

> Note that compatibility with 24.3 was not the cause of the OP original
> issue (they were running 26.3).

I just do not have enough experience with elisp to suggest a patch to 
explicitly notify users that they have mixed org install. On the other 
hand, particular symptom from the report can be easily mitigated.

> Do we really want to maintain compatibility with Emacs 24.3?

There is the only place in org where `string-empty-p' is used. There is 
no (require 'subr-x) in org-agenda.el. Notice

lisp/org.el:10: ;; Package-Requires: ((emacs "24.3"))

Till this line is updated, I suppose, patches should respect it, 
especially for the maint branch. Unfortunately new org cite feature 
recently merged to master relies on some rx features unavailable even in 
Emacs-26.3 (Ubuntu-20.04 LTS focal).

> That
> version was released over 8 years ago and I suspect there are other
> areas of org which are not compatible with that version. Note also that
> the subr-x and string-empty-p were introduced in Emacs 24.4. If we are
> going to support Emacs 24, I think it is reasonable it be 24.4 rather
> than aiming for all 24 releases.

It seems, RedHat-7 and thus CentOS-7 were released with Emacs-24.3. I 
have no idea how many users run these flavors on desktops and are 
permitted to update Org to the latest version. Accordingly to
https://wiki.centos.org/About/Product
end of lifetime dates for CentOS-7 are 2020-08-06 for full updates and 
2024-06-30 for maintenance updates.

Re: [PATCH] org-agenda.el: Avoid dependency on subr-x

[Timothy]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 186 bytes --]

Hi Maxim,

> Restore compatibility with Emacs-24.3.

FYI Emacs 24 is no longer Org’s minimum version, from the next release onward
it will be Emacs 25.

All the best,
Timothy

Re: [PATCH] org-agenda.el: Avoid dependency on subr-x

[Maxim Nikulin]

On 05/08/2021 04:41, Вячеслав Гришин wrote:
> Now I don't know if I need to do something extra, because the
> problem  arose because of my mistake.

Vyacheslav, you do not need to react to my patch, it is for Org 
maintainers. There is neither continuous integration server nor ready to 
use configuration (e.g. a set of docker containers) to verify commits in 
clean environment. As a result some files may have minor issues that are 
unnoticeable by most of users. However it is better to fix 
inconsistencies like missed `require', etc.

> When I removed the second version of Org and the extra code from .emacs,
> everything worked. I don't know how to explain it, because I'm just
> starting to learn emacs and lisp

Notice that you can have more than one org mode version installed. E.g. 
in Debian and Ubuntu in addition to the version bundled with Emacs, it 
is possible to install elpa-org deb package. The version however is 
anyway noticeably older than current stable Org release, so people often 
use various package managers for Emacs.

The problem you have met is not uncommon, example of usual response:
https://orgmode.org/list/87im5gszqs.fsf@kyleam.com/
Unfortunately symptoms are usually quite obscure, they may reveal 
another issue. I do not know if it is possible to implement a trap to 
explicitly notify user that parts of org are loaded from different 
directories.

There are may be some pitfalls on the way to have newer org version:
- You should not require any org modules before `load-path' is adjusted.
- Do not forget to recompile after update of sources. It seems, Emacs do 
not have means to detect stale .elc file similar to e.g. Python.
- Attempt to try alternative version without modification of init.el may 
result in unexpected result. Usually "-Q" or at least "-q" option is 
required to suppress initialization. "-L" option is processed after 
init.el. So "emacs -L ~/src/org-mode/lisp" can easily result in mixed 
install. E.g. "emacs -Q -L ~/src/org-mode/lisp -l ~/.emacs.d/init.el" 
mostly work but there are some edge cases since it is not full 
equivalent of real initialization. There is no way to specify custom 
init file through command line option, it is necessary to create a part 
of parallel universe and pass it as --user option argument, HOME or 
XDG_CONFIG_HOME (for latest emacs version) environment:
https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=15539#121

Do not be afraid by such complications too much. ELPA package is the 
recommended way to have latest stable version:
https://orgmode.org/install.html
Alternatively ensure that (add-to-list 'load-path "~/src/org-mode/lisp") 
is early enough in your init.el.

Re: [PATCH] org-agenda.el: Avoid dependency on subr-x

[Maxim Nikulin]

On 05/08/2021 19:59, Timothy wrote:
> 
>> Restore compatibility with Emacs-24.3.
> 
> FYI Emacs 24 is no longer Org’s minimum version, from the next release onward
> it will be Emacs 25.

Timothy, I have seen that discussion. For me it does not matter in which 
way org-agenda.el will be fixed: by adding (require 'subr-x) or by using 
string= instead of string-empty-p. Both variants work with Emacs-26.3. 
The point is that "make single" should work without warnings and in the 
case of mixed install users should not get confusing errors that 
resemble real issues.

The only reason why I suggested namely to avoid string-empty-p is that 
compatibility with Emacs-24.3 is still declared in Org sources.

Re: [PATCH] org-agenda.el: Avoid dependency on subr-x

[Timothy]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 778 bytes --]

Hi Maxim,

> Timothy, I have seen that discussion. For me it does not matter in which way
> org-agenda.el will be fixed: by adding (require ’subr-x) or by using string=
> instead of string-empty-p. Both variants work with Emacs-26.3. The point is that
> “make single” should work without warnings and in the case of mixed install
> users should not get confusing errors that resemble real issues.
>
> The only reason why I suggested namely to avoid string-empty-p is that
> compatibility with Emacs-24.3 is still declared in Org sources.

Ah, cool. I took your original email to indicate that this change was solely for
Emacs 24.3 comparability, but I now see you simply used that as a reason to
choose between two different fixes.

All the best,
Timothy