Subject: 25.3; Dired unable to open directory "/ssh:example.com"

From: Christoph Michelbach <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 May 2018 13:41:59 +0200

If you can't reproduce the problem with the version of Emacs you're running
right away, please read till the end of this email.

When a file's path conflicts with how an external resource is addressed, you can
tell Emacs to open the local path by preceding it with "/:". If you created a
file with

sudo touch "/ssh:example.com/file"

, you could access it via:

C-x C-f /:/ssh:example.com/file RET

However, if you leave "file" out, you don't get to see a dired buffer after
hitting return. Instead, the current windows are retained and the mini buffer
reads:

Host name must not match method "ssh"

The *Messages* buffer says:

tramp-file-name-handler: Host name must not match method "ssh"

You also cannot first navigate to "/" and then enter the directory by moving
point to it and hitting return. The same problem accompanied by the same error
message occurs.

If you use the development version of Emacs, the problem only occurs if the
directory's name ends in a colon. So if you're using the development version,
run

sudo mkdir "/ssh:exaple.com:"

instead to create a folder you can't access via dired. Again, the problem occurs
both when entering its path preceded by "/:" and when hitting return on the
dired buffer of "/".

I used the latest version on the master branch of the mirror on GitHub
(60ff8101449eea3a5ca4961299501efd83d011bd) to confirm that the problem still
exists.