Subject: 29.1; Reading from pipe with --insert or insert-file-contents no longer supported

From: Lucas Werkmeister <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2023 20:20:23 +0200

Launch graphical Emacs with standard input attached to a pipe, then
attempt to insert /dev/stdin, for example:

     echo test | emacs -Q --insert /dev/stdin
     echo test | emacs -Q --eval '(insert-file-contents "/dev/stdin")'

This now results in an error (and nothing inserted into the buffer):
"Maximum buffer size exceeded".

Previously, this used to work; git bisect identifies cb4579ed6b ("Allow
inserting parts of /dev/urandom with insert-file-contents", bug#18370)
as the first bad commit.

Other (non-stdin) pipes are also affected. Testing with a named pipe 
shows that the error only occurs after the pipe is first written to:

     # first terminal:
     mkfifo /tmp/fifo
     emacs -Q
     M-x insert-file /tmp/fifo
     # second terminal:
     { echo x; sleep 10; echo y; } > /tmp/fifo

Before you run the command in the second terminal, you can observe that 
Emacs is just waiting for input from the pipe; as soon as you run the 
other command, Emacs shows the error before the sleep finishes.

In GNU Emacs 29.1 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.38,
cairo version 1.17.8)
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.12301002
System Description: Arch Linux

Configured using:
  'configure --sysconfdir=/etc --prefix=/usr --libexecdir=/usr/lib
  --with-tree-sitter --localstatedir=/var --with-cairo
  --disable-build-details --with-harfbuzz --with-libsystemd
  --with-modules --with-x-toolkit=gtk3 '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/src=/usr/src/debug/emacs -flto=auto'
  'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-O1,--sort-common,--as-needed,-z,relro,-z,now -flto=auto''

Configured features:
ACL CAIRO DBUS FREETYPE GIF GLIB GMP GNUTLS GPM GSETTINGS HARFBUZZ JPEG
JSON LCMS2 LIBOTF LIBSYSTEMD LIBXML2 M17N_FLT MODULES NOTIFY INOTIFY
PDUMPER PNG RSVG SECCOMP SOUND SQLITE3 THREADS TIFF TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS
TREE_SITTER WEBP X11 XDBE XIM XINPUT2 XPM GTK3 ZLIB

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

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
   xterm-mouse-mode: t
   global-auto-revert-mode: t
   tooltip-mode: t
   global-eldoc-mode: t
   eldoc-mode: t
   show-paren-mode: t
   electric-indent-mode: t
   mouse-wheel-mode: t
   tool-bar-mode: t
   menu-bar-mode: t
   file-name-shadow-mode: t
   global-font-lock-mode: t
   font-lock-mode: t
   blink-cursor-mode: t
   column-number-mode: t
   line-number-mode: t
   transient-mark-mode: t
   auto-composition-mode: t
   auto-encryption-mode: t
   auto-compression-mode: t

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message yank-media puny dired
dired-loaddefs rfc822 mml mml-sec epa derived epg rfc6068 epg-config
gnus-util text-property-search time-date mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode
mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047
rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils xt-mouse autorevert
filenotify finder-inf rx info package browse-url url url-proxy
url-privacy url-expand url-methods url-history url-cookie
generate-lisp-file url-domsuf url-util mailcap url-handlers url-parse
auth-source cl-seq eieio eieio-core cl-macs password-cache json subr-x
map byte-opt gv bytecomp byte-compile url-vars cl-loaddefs cl-lib rmc
iso-transl tooltip cconv eldoc paren electric uniquify ediff-hook
vc-hooks lisp-float-type elisp-mode mwheel term/x-win x-win
term/common-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe
tabulated-list replace newcomment text-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register
page tab-bar menu-bar rfn-eshadow isearch easymenu timer select
scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax font-core term/tty-colors
frame minibuffer nadvice seq simple cl-generic indonesian philippine
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 composite emoji-zwj charscript
charprop case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help abbrev obarray oclosure
cl-preloaded button loaddefs theme-loaddefs faces cus-face macroexp
files window text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env
code-pages mule custom widget keymap hashtable-print-readable backquote
threads dbusbind inotify lcms2 dynamic-setting system-font-setting
font-render-setting cairo move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit xinput2 x multi-tty
make-network-process emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 16 220386 8042)
  (symbols 48 13986 0)
  (strings 32 76266 1637)
  (string-bytes 1 1839262)
  (vectors 16 21600)
  (vector-slots 8 323307 13800)
  (floats 8 29 30)
  (intervals 56 250 0)
  (buffers 984 10))