GNU bug report logs - #6801
24.0.50; M-w C-y gives an error under OS X

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

From: Joel Holveck <joelh <at> piquan.org>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 24.0.50; M-w C-y gives an error under OS X
Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2010 03:45:29 -0700

When using OS X, if I press M-w then C-y, then an error is raised:
    Quit: "pasteboard doesn't contain valid data"
(Cause and workaround follows recipe.)

The recipe is what's in the "Recent input" section below, but here it is
for convenience.  From emacs -Q, type foo.  Select it using C-a C-SPC
C-n.  Kill it using C-w.  Yank using C-y.  At this point, instead of
yanking, Emacs raises the error:
    Quit: "pasteboard doesn't contain valid data"

From what I can tell, Emacs calls deactivate-mark during the C-w
process.  When the mark is deactivated (as part of deactivate-mark), if
select-active-regions is set, then Emacs calls x-own-selection-internal
(the one defined in nsselect.m).  At some point, it seems that
x-own-selection-internal clears the pasteboard instead of pasting it,
even though it's being called with reasonable arguments.

Note that running (x-own-selection-internal 'PRIMARY "foo") also
(according to Pasteboard Inspector) clears out the pasteboard, instead
of setting it to hold "foo".  The other mechanism used to access the
pasteboard, ns-store-cut-buffer-internal, seems to work fine.  (That's
what C-k, for example, uses.  C-w and family also will call
ns-store-cut-buffer-internal, but then call x-own-selection-internal
(when the mark is deactivated).

My workaround was to add to .emacs.el:
  (when (eq window-system 'ns)
    (setq select-active-regions nil))

And yes, I know I'm running a development version of Emacs.  Is it
reasonable to use report-emacs-bug for this?


In GNU Emacs 24.0.50.1 (x86_64-apple-darwin10.4.0, NS apple-appkit-1038.32)
of 2010-08-04 on frigg.piquan.org
Windowing system distributor `Apple', version 10.3.1038
configured using `configure  '--with-ns''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  value of $XMODIFIERS: nil
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix
  default enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
  tooltip-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
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
f o o C-a C-SPC C-n C-w C-y ESC x r e p o r t - e m 
a c s - b u g <return>

Recent messages:
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
Mark set
byte-code: End of buffer
Mark set
Quit: "pasteboard doesn't contain valid data"

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow sort gnus-util mail-extr message rfc822 mml mml-sec mm-decode
mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums
mm-util mail-prsvr mailabbrev mail-utils gmm-utils mailheader emacsbug
tooltip ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel ns-win easymenu
tool-bar dnd fontset image fringe lisp-mode register page menu-bar
rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mldrag mouse jit-lock font-lock
syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang
vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew greek
romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese
case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev loaddefs button
minibuffer faces cus-face files text-properties overlay md5 base64
format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable
backquote make-network-process ns multi-tty emacs)

Message #8 received at 6801 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: David De La Harpe Golden <david <at> harpegolden.net>
To: Joel Holveck <joelh <at> piquan.org>
Cc: Chong Yidong <cyd <at> stupidchicken.com>, 6801 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#6801: 24.0.50; M-w C-y gives an error under OS X
Date: Mon, 09 Aug 2010 02:39:29 +0100

On 05/08/10 11:45, Joel Holveck wrote:
> When using OS X, if I press M-w then C-y, then an error is raised:
>      Quit: "pasteboard doesn't contain valid data"
> (Cause and workaround follows recipe.)
>

FWIW, there are known issues in this area (and possibly unknown ones to 
of course) on ns arising from recent changes to defaults for selection 
handling.

If you are okay with rebuilding emacs, please try the ns-clipboard 
-pboard_r2.diff patch under bug #6677 that you'll find at the link below.

It won't solve all problems in the area in ns emacs but it should fix 
your immediate problem as reported, I think (actually, I know it does on 
my system, though I'm testing in gnustep):

http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=6677#29

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