Subject: 25.1.50; tramp error: Wrong method specification for‘scp’

From: Sam Steingold <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2016 14:23:34 -0500

In GNU Emacs 25.1.50.14 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2016-01-24 built on sdsGazPro
Repository revision: 6d25cbeaaf93615b8d7f26024ba014104eb5d4f2
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11702000
System Description:	Ubuntu 15.10

I get this error:

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (file-error #("Wrong method specification for ‘scp’" 32 35 (tramp-default t)))
  signal(file-error (#("Wrong method specification for ‘scp’" 32 35 (tramp-default t))))
  tramp-sh-handle-file-local-copy(#("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)))
  apply(tramp-sh-handle-file-local-copy #("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)))
  tramp-sh-file-name-handler(file-local-copy #("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)))
  apply(tramp-sh-file-name-handler file-local-copy #("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)))
  tramp-file-name-handler(file-local-copy #("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)))
  file-local-copy(#("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)))
  tramp-handle-insert-file-contents(#("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)) nil nil nil nil)
  apply(tramp-handle-insert-file-contents (#("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)) nil nil nil nil))
  tramp-sh-file-name-handler(insert-file-contents #("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)) nil nil nil nil)
  apply(tramp-sh-file-name-handler insert-file-contents (#("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)) nil nil nil nil))
  tramp-file-name-handler(insert-file-contents #("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)) nil nil nil nil)
  insert-file-contents(#("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)) nil nil nil nil)
  insert-file-contents-literally(#("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)))
  tramp-do-copy-or-rename-file-via-buffer(copy #("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)) "/home/sds/.newsrc" t)
  tramp-do-copy-or-rename-file(copy #("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)) "/home/sds/.newsrc" t t nil nil)
  tramp-sh-handle-copy-file(#("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)) "/home/sds/.newsrc" t t nil nil)
  apply(tramp-sh-handle-copy-file (#("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)) "/home/sds/.newsrc" t t nil nil))
  tramp-sh-file-name-handler(copy-file #("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)) "/home/sds/.newsrc" t t nil nil)
  apply(tramp-sh-file-name-handler copy-file (#("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)) "/home/sds/.newsrc" t t nil nil))
  tramp-file-name-handler(copy-file #("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t)) "/home/sds/.newsrc" t t nil nil)
  copy-file("/podval:~/.newsrc" "~/.newsrc" t t)
  sds-mirror("/podval:~/.newsrc" "~/.newsrc")
  sds-pull-gnus-startup()
  run-hooks(gnus-before-startup-hook)
  apply(run-hooks gnus-before-startup-hook)
  gnus-run-hooks(gnus-before-startup-hook)
  gnus-1(nil nil nil)
  gnus(nil)
  gnus-other-frame(nil)
  funcall-interactively(gnus-other-frame nil)
  call-interactively(gnus-other-frame nil nil)
  command-execute(gnus-other-frame)

I am confused because this worked before, and I can "ssh podval" from
the shell (podval is mentioned in ssh/config).

in tramp-sh-handle-file-local-copy:

v ==> [#("scp" 0 3 (tramp-default t)) nil "podval" "/home/sds/.newsrc" nil]
filename ==> #("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t))
size ==> nil
rem-enc ==> nil
loc-dec ==> nil

Configured features:
XAW3D XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG SOUND DBUS NOTIFY GNUTLS LIBXML2 ZLIB
TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS LUCID X11

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: C
  value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=ibus
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: Debugger

Minor modes in effect:
  diff-auto-refine-mode: t
  rcirc-track-minor-mode: t
  which-function-mode: t
  url-handler-mode: t
  show-paren-mode: t
  desktop-save-mode: t
  shell-dirtrack-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  global-eldoc-mode: t
  electric-indent-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  buffer-read-only: t
  column-number-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t

Recent messages:
Type "q" in help window to delete it.
#("/scp:podval:/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t))
t
#("/scp:podval:/mnt/data/home/sds/.newsrc" 1 4 (tramp-default t))
nil
"/tmp/tramp.2643LXO"
Mark saved where search started
nil [2 times]

funcall-interactively: Beginning of buffer
previous-line: Beginning of buffer

Load-path shadows:
/home/sds/src/emacs/trunk/lisp/textmodes/ispell hides /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/dictionaries-common/ispell
/home/sds/src/emacs/trunk/lisp/textmodes/flyspell hides /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/dictionaries-common/flyspell

Features:
(shadow sort bbdb-message mailalias cookie1 mail-extr gnus-msg gnus-art
mm-uu mml2015 mm-view mml-smime smime dig gnus-sum gnus-group gnus-undo
emacsbug sendmail cl-indent eieio-opt speedbar sb-image ezimage dframe
gnus-start gnus-cloud nnimap nnmail mail-source tls gnutls utf7 netrc
nnoo parse-time gnus-spec gnus-int gnus-range gnus-win skeleton pulse
etags xref project smerge-mode dabbrev log-edit time-stamp
character-fold misearch multi-isearch add-log log-view pcvs-util
remember image-mode message rfc822 mml mml-sec epg mm-decode mm-bodies
mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums gmm-utils
mailheader cc-mode cc-fonts cc-guess cc-menus cc-cmds cc-styles cc-align
cc-engine conf-mode make-mode view tramp-cache sgml-mode sh-script smie
anaconda-mode pythonic f s dash url url-proxy url-privacy url-expand
url-methods url-history url-cookie url-domsuf url-util mailcap python-x
folding-isearch folding python tramp-sh tramp tramp-compat
tramp-loaddefs trampver ucs-normalize json vc-hg vc-dir vc vc-dispatcher
vc-git diff-mode easy-mmode flyspell ispell tex-mode dired-aux map
finder-inf package epg-config dired dired-loaddefs warnings midnight
gnus gnus-ems nnheader mail-utils wid-edit bbdb-mua bbdb-com crm
mailabbrev bbdb-loaddefs bbdb bbdb-site timezone rcirc server which-func
imenu url-handlers url-parse auth-source cl-seq eieio eieio-core cl-macs
eieio-loaddefs gnus-util mm-util help-fns mail-prsvr password-cache
url-vars paren help-at-pt desktop frameset cus-start cus-load ido seq
byte-opt bytecomp byte-compile cconv cl-extra help-mode ess-toolbar
ess-mouse mouseme thingatpt browse-url ess-menu ess-swv ess-noweb
ess-noweb-font-lock-mode ess-bugs-l essd-els ess-sas-d ess-sas-l
ess-sas-a shell pcomplete ess-sta-d ess-sta-l cc-vars cc-defs
make-regexp ess-sp6-d ess-sp3-d ess-julia julia-mode ert pp find-func
ewoc debug ess-r-d ess-r-syntax ess-r-completion ess-tracebug
format-spec ess-roxy advice hideshow ess-help ess-developer ess-s-l ess
ess-inf compile comint ansi-color ring ess-mode ess-noweb-mode ess-utils
ess-custom executable easymenu ess-compat ess-site cl gv cl-loaddefs
pcase cl-lib time-date mule-util tooltip eldoc electric uniquify
ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel x-win term/common-win x-dnd
tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment
elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer
select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core
frame cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan
thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian
slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese charscript
case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev obarray minibuffer
cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files
text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule
custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote dbusbind inotify
dynamic-setting x-toolkit x multi-tty make-network-process emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 16 665953 42862)
 (symbols 48 71324 0)
 (miscs 40 6784 72)
 (strings 32 215315 26144)
 (string-bytes 1 5085119)
 (vectors 16 80087)
 (vector-slots 8 1244406 10934)
 (floats 8 647 1044)
 (intervals 56 14751 0)
 (buffers 976 90)
 (heap 1024 68805 1560))

-- 
Sam Steingold (http://sds.podval.org/) on Ubuntu 15.10 (wily) X 11.0.11702000
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