GNU bug report logs - #64866
30.0.50; Emacsclient block for 2 seconds when error is raised from command

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Yikai Zhao <yikai <at> z1k.dev>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 30.0.50; Emacsclient block for 2 seconds when error is raised from
 command
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 10:10:08 +0800

After updating to recent master version of emacs, emacsclient would
block for an extra 2 seconds when some error is raised from command.

Minimal reproducable command:

  emacsclient -s <...> -e '(error "x")'

Expected behavior: this command should return immediately
Current behavior: this command take 2 second


Why it affects me:

I bind some keyboard shortcut globally to a script to move either from
emacs window or i3wm window. It does something like this:

   emacsclient -e '(windmove-right)' || i3-msg focus right

It rely on the behavior that, if I'm currently in the rightmost emacs
buffer, '(windmove-right)' would return an error and fallback to use
i3-msg to move to another frame. With this bug I mentioned, it would
introduce 2-second delay on this action.



In GNU Emacs 30.0.50 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version
 3.24.38, cairo version 1.17.8) of 2023-07-23 built on lilac-0
Repository revision: 5d2d28458d0eb378a7e94363ef716e8648ef129a
Repository branch: master
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.12101008
System Description: Arch Linux

Configured using:
 'configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --libexecdir=/usr/lib
 --localstatedir=/var --mandir=/usr/share/man --with-gameuser=:games
 --with-modules --without-libotf --without-m17n-flt --without-gconf
 --with-native-compilation=yes --with-native-compilation=aot
 --with-sound=no --with-xwidgets --with-tree-sitter --without-gpm
 '--program-transform-name=s/\([ec]tags\)/\1.emacs/'
 'CFLAGS=-march=x86-64 -mtune=generic -O2 -pipe -fno-plt -fexceptions
 -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wformat -Werror=format-security
 -fstack-clash-protection -fcf-protection -g
 -ffile-prefix-map=/build/emacs-native-comp-git/src=/usr/src/debug/emacs-native-comp-git
 -flto=auto' 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-O1,--sort-common,--as-needed,-z,relro,-z,now
 -flto=auto''

Configured features:
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LCMS2 LIBSYSTEMD LIBXML2 MODULES NATIVE_COMP NOTIFY INOTIFY PDUMPER PNG
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X11 XDBE XIM XINPUT2 XPM XWIDGETS GTK3 ZLIB

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=fcitx
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: VTerm

Minor modes in effect:
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  windmove-mode: t
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  global-git-commit-mode: t
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  auto-compression-mode: t

Load-path shadows:
/home/blahgeek/.emacs.d/lib/cmake-mode/cmake-mode hides /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/cmake-mode
/home/blahgeek/.emacs.d/lib/protobuf-mode/protobuf-mode hides /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/protobuf-mode
/home/blahgeek/.emacs.d/lib/transient/lisp/transient hides /usr/share/emacs/30.0.50/lisp/transient
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/home/blahgeek/.emacs.d/lib/use-package/use-package-jump hides /usr/share/emacs/30.0.50/lisp/use-package/use-package-jump
/home/blahgeek/.emacs.d/lib/use-package/use-package-ensure hides /usr/share/emacs/30.0.50/lisp/use-package/use-package-ensure
/home/blahgeek/.emacs.d/lib/use-package/use-package-ensure-system-package hides /usr/share/emacs/30.0.50/lisp/use-package/use-package-ensure-system-package
/home/blahgeek/.emacs.d/lib/use-package/use-package-diminish hides /usr/share/emacs/30.0.50/lisp/use-package/use-package-diminish
/home/blahgeek/.emacs.d/lib/use-package/use-package-delight hides /usr/share/emacs/30.0.50/lisp/use-package/use-package-delight
/home/blahgeek/.emacs.d/lib/use-package/use-package-core hides /usr/share/emacs/30.0.50/lisp/use-package/use-package-core
/home/blahgeek/.emacs.d/lib/use-package/use-package-bind-key hides /usr/share/emacs/30.0.50/lisp/use-package/use-package-bind-key
/home/blahgeek/.emacs.d/lib/use-package/bind-key hides /usr/share/emacs/30.0.50/lisp/use-package/bind-key

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Message #8 received at 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Yikai Zhao <yikai <at> z1k.dev>
Cc: 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#64866: 30.0.50;
 Emacsclient block for 2 seconds when error is raised from command
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 05:30:11 +0300

> From: Yikai Zhao <yikai <at> z1k.dev>
> Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 10:10:08 +0800
> 
> 
> After updating to recent master version of emacs, emacsclient would
> block for an extra 2 seconds when some error is raised from command.

That's deliberate: we want to allow the user to see the error message.
It is not a bug.

> Why it affects me:
> 
> I bind some keyboard shortcut globally to a script to move either from
> emacs window or i3wm window. It does something like this:
> 
>    emacsclient -e '(windmove-right)' || i3-msg focus right
> 
> It rely on the behavior that, if I'm currently in the rightmost emacs
> buffer, '(windmove-right)' would return an error and fallback to use
> i3-msg to move to another frame. With this bug I mentioned, it would
> introduce 2-second delay on this action.

I don't think your quite special use case is a reason good enough to
prevent users from seeing error messages.  An error message that
cannot be read is useless.

Sorry.

Message #11 received at 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Yikai Zhao <yikai <at> z1k.dev>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#64866: 30.0.50; Emacsclient block for 2 seconds when error is
 raised from command
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 23:50:43 +0800

Thanks for your reply.

That's OK, I understand your point. Previously I thought this should
be treated as a bug because in my mind, "emacsclient -e xxxx" is
similar to "emacs --eval=xxx" (and further, similar to "python -c
xxxx"), which is a general interface to evaluate code (but maybe in a
specific environment (the server)). In that case, arbitrarily sleeping
some extra seconds in some valid evaluation scenarios seems
unexpected. Now I can see why that's not the case as the primary
function of emacsclient is to "tell a running Emacs to visit a file".


For any others who may be interested, my use case can be workaround by
using a slightly more complex command:

    RES="$(emacsclient -e "(condition-case nil (progn (windmove-right)
t) (error nil))")"
    if [ "$RES" != "t" ]; then
        return 1
    fi


On Wed, Jul 26, 2023 at 10:29 AM Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> wrote:
>
> > From: Yikai Zhao <yikai <at> z1k.dev>
> > Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 10:10:08 +0800
> >
> >
> > After updating to recent master version of emacs, emacsclient would
> > block for an extra 2 seconds when some error is raised from command.
>
> That's deliberate: we want to allow the user to see the error message.
> It is not a bug.
>
> > Why it affects me:
> >
> > I bind some keyboard shortcut globally to a script to move either from
> > emacs window or i3wm window. It does something like this:
> >
> >    emacsclient -e '(windmove-right)' || i3-msg focus right
> >
> > It rely on the behavior that, if I'm currently in the rightmost emacs
> > buffer, '(windmove-right)' would return an error and fallback to use
> > i3-msg to move to another frame. With this bug I mentioned, it would
> > introduce 2-second delay on this action.
>
> I don't think your quite special use case is a reason good enough to
> prevent users from seeing error messages.  An error message that
> cannot be read is useless.
>
> Sorry.

Message #16 received at 64866-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Yikai Zhao <yikai <at> z1k.dev>
Cc: 64866-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#64866: 30.0.50; Emacsclient block for 2 seconds when error is
 raised from command
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 18:58:24 +0300

> From: Yikai Zhao <yikai <at> z1k.dev>
> Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 23:50:43 +0800
> Cc: 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> That's OK, I understand your point. Previously I thought this should
> be treated as a bug because in my mind, "emacsclient -e xxxx" is
> similar to "emacs --eval=xxx" (and further, similar to "python -c
> xxxx"), which is a general interface to evaluate code (but maybe in a
> specific environment (the server)). In that case, arbitrarily sleeping
> some extra seconds in some valid evaluation scenarios seems
> unexpected. Now I can see why that's not the case as the primary
> function of emacsclient is to "tell a running Emacs to visit a file".
> 
> 
> For any others who may be interested, my use case can be workaround by
> using a slightly more complex command:
> 
>     RES="$(emacsclient -e "(condition-case nil (progn (windmove-right)
> t) (error nil))")"
>     if [ "$RES" != "t" ]; then
>         return 1
>     fi

Thanks, I'm therefore closing this bug.

Message #19 received at 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jim Porter <jporterbugs <at> gmail.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>, Yikai Zhao <yikai <at> z1k.dev>
Cc: 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#64866: 30.0.50; Emacsclient block for 2 seconds when error is
 raised from command
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 11:07:24 -0700

On 7/25/2023 7:30 PM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> I don't think your quite special use case is a reason good enough to
> prevent users from seeing error messages.  An error message that
> cannot be read is useless.

In this case, the user *can* see the error though: it's printed in the 
terminal that they called `emacsclient -e '(error "oops")'` from. Even 
without the 2 second delay, I don't think there would be any loss of 
information to the user (at least not that I can see).

I've actually seen a related issue come up elsewhere: in our regression 
tests. When testing programmable completion in Eshell, I had to let-bind 
'minibuffer-message-timeout' to 0 to prevent the 2 second delay, which 
occurred even in batch mode. (See 
'em-cmpl-test/variable-ref-completion/directory' in 
"test/lisp/eshell/em-cmpl-tests.el".) I'm not sure why this delay is 
present in batch mode. (Going back to the original bug report, I'd 
consider 'emacsclient -e blah' to be analogous to batch mode.)

Strangely, I tried running this and I still see a 2 second delay:

  emacsclient -e '(let ((minibuffer-message-timeout 0)) (error "oops"))'

I'm not sure why that doesn't work...

Message #22 received at 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Jim Porter <jporterbugs <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, yikai <at> z1k.dev
Subject: Re: bug#64866: 30.0.50; Emacsclient block for 2 seconds when error is
 raised from command
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 21:48:39 +0300

> Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 11:07:24 -0700
> Cc: 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> From: Jim Porter <jporterbugs <at> gmail.com>
> 
> On 7/25/2023 7:30 PM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > I don't think your quite special use case is a reason good enough to
> > prevent users from seeing error messages.  An error message that
> > cannot be read is useless.
> 
> In this case, the user *can* see the error though: it's printed in the 
> terminal that they called `emacsclient -e '(error "oops")'` from.

emacsclient writes the error message to its stderr, but it immediately
exits.  When it exits and the Emacs frame is deleted, if it was a TTY
frame which was displayed on that sane terminal, the message is
deleted because Emacs clears the terminal when it deletes the frame.

I guess your experience is from GUI frames or something?  But even in
that case it is not guaranteed that the error message will be seen,
because emacsclient could be called with -nowait and in background.

So I consider relying on this message as not a good idea, especially
for error messages that usually tell something about the problem.
Imagine the frustration of a user who sees the message flashing, but
cannot read it.

I think the delay that sometimes gets in the way is a small price to
pay for this important feature.

> Strangely, I tried running this and I still see a 2 second delay:
> 
>    emacsclient -e '(let ((minibuffer-message-timeout 0)) (error "oops"))'
> 
> I'm not sure why that doesn't work...

Why did you think it should?  According to its documentation it only
affects minibuffer-message.  The 2-sec delay in the above case is done
by an explicit call to sit-for with a hard-coded argument of 2 sec.
See server-return-error.

Message #25 received at 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jim Porter <jporterbugs <at> gmail.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, yikai <at> z1k.dev
Subject: Re: bug#64866: 30.0.50; Emacsclient block for 2 seconds when error is
 raised from command
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 12:48:38 -0700

On 7/26/2023 11:48 AM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> emacsclient writes the error message to its stderr, but it immediately
> exits.  When it exits and the Emacs frame is deleted, if it was a TTY
> frame which was displayed on that sane terminal, the message is
> deleted because Emacs clears the terminal when it deletes the frame.
> 
> I guess your experience is from GUI frames or something?  But even in
> that case it is not guaranteed that the error message will be seen,
> because emacsclient could be called with -nowait and in background.

I was testing this without any frames (well, except for the invisible 
daemon frame). I see what you mean, though. Since most uses of 
"emacsclient" involve creating/using an Emacs frame, it makes sense that 
the code would be oriented around that case.

> Why did you think it should?  According to its documentation it only
> affects minibuffer-message.  The 2-sec delay in the above case is done
> by an explicit call to sit-for with a hard-coded argument of 2 sec.
> See server-return-error.

Thanks for the pointer to this code. Looking at it, it doesn't seem easy 
to avoid this delay without causing the problems that you've mentioned.

Message #28 received at 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Jim Porter <jporterbugs <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, yikai <at> z1k.dev
Subject: Re: bug#64866: 30.0.50; Emacsclient block for 2 seconds when error is
 raised from command
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2023 07:48:09 +0300

> Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 12:48:38 -0700
> Cc: 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, yikai <at> z1k.dev
> From: Jim Porter <jporterbugs <at> gmail.com>
> 
> On 7/26/2023 11:48 AM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > Why did you think it should?  According to its documentation it only
> > affects minibuffer-message.  The 2-sec delay in the above case is done
> > by an explicit call to sit-for with a hard-coded argument of 2 sec.
> > See server-return-error.
> 
> Thanks for the pointer to this code. Looking at it, it doesn't seem easy 
> to avoid this delay without causing the problems that you've mentioned.

Yes, see bug#63629 for the problems that code attempts to solve.

Message #31 received at 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jim Porter <jporterbugs <at> gmail.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, yikai <at> z1k.dev
Subject: Re: bug#64866: 30.0.50; Emacsclient block for 2 seconds when error is
 raised from command
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 22:34:11 -0700

On 7/26/2023 9:48 PM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 12:48:38 -0700
>> Cc: 64866 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, yikai <at> z1k.dev
>> From: Jim Porter <jporterbugs <at> gmail.com>
>>
>> On 7/26/2023 11:48 AM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>>> Why did you think it should?  According to its documentation it only
>>> affects minibuffer-message.  The 2-sec delay in the above case is done
>>> by an explicit call to sit-for with a hard-coded argument of 2 sec.
>>> See server-return-error.
>>
>> Thanks for the pointer to this code. Looking at it, it doesn't seem easy
>> to avoid this delay without causing the problems that you've mentioned.
> 
> Yes, see bug#63629 for the problems that code attempts to solve.

Thanks. I'll take a look at that in more detail in the next week or so, 
since at this point I'm just curious as to whether there's a way to get 
the best of both worlds. (At minimum, maybe I can add a regression test.)

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