To reproduce, starting at the root of the Emacs source tree: 1. emacs -Q 2. M-x edebug-all-defs RET 3. C-x C-f test/lisp/jit-lock-tests.el RET 4. M-x eval-buffer RET Result: invalid-read-syntax "Failed matching" (form) Here's a one line patch that fixes it for me: