GNU bug report logs - #8885
24.0.50; Temporary failure with `select-frame-by-name' on Windows

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

From: nyc4bos <at> aol.com
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 24.0.50; Temporary failure with `select-frame-by-name' on Windows
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:18:39 -0400

On Windows, sometimes when executing:

emacsclient -n --eval "(select-frame-by-name \"emacs <at> HOSTNAME\")"

I get the error:

C:\emacs-24.0.50\bin\emacsclient.exe: connected to remote socket at XX.XX.X.XXX

AllowSetForegroundWindow failed with w32 error 5: Access is denied.

This error appears to occur when Emacs is "busy" (for example when in the
middle of loading a large .el file, etc) and executing the emacsclient
`--eval' command from a Windows command prompt.

A subsequent invocation of that same emacsclient command will work just
fine (presumably Emacs is now no longer "busy") and bring the specified
Emacs frame to the forefront.



In GNU Emacs 24.0.50.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600)
 of 2011-06-13 on 3249CTO
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.1.2600
configured using `configure --with-gcc (4.5) --no-opt --cflags -Ic:/build/include'

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
  value of $XMODIFIERS: nil
  locale-coding-system: cp1252
  default enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
  jabber-activity-mode: t
  show-paren-mode: t
  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
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
<escape> x l o a d SPC f SPC <return> d e b <tab> g 
. <tab> <return> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> 
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> 
<help-echo> C-y SPC <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> 
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <menu-bar> <help-menu> 
<send-emacs-bug-report>

Recent messages:
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug offlineimap google-weather url-cache
google-maps google-maps-static google-maps-geocode google-maps-base json
pcmpl-ssh executable pcomplete jabber jabber-libnotify dbus
jabber-awesome jabber-osd jabber-wmii jabber-xmessage jabber-festival
jabber-sawfish jabber-ratpoison jabber-screen jabber-socks5
jabber-ft-server jabber-si-server jabber-ft-client jabber-ft-common
jabber-si-client jabber-si-common jabber-feature-neg jabber-truncate
jabber-time jabber-autoaway jabber-vcard-avatars jabber-chatstates
jabber-events jabber-vcard jabber-avatar jabber-activity jabber-watch
jabber-modeline jabber-ahc-presence jabber-ahc jabber-version
jabber-ourversion jabber-muc-nick-completion hippie-exp comint ring
jabber-browse jabber-search jabber-register jabber-roster
jabber-presence jabber-muc jabber-muc-nick-coloring hexrgb
jabber-newdisco jabber-widget jabber-disco jabber-chat jabber-history
jabber-chatbuffer jabber-alert jabber-iq jabber-core jabber-console
sgml-mode ewoc jabber-keymap jabber-sasl sasl sasl-anonymous sasl-login
sasl-plain fsm jabber-logon jabber-conn srv dns starttls tls jabber-xml
xml jabber-menu jabber-autoloads jabber-util epa-file epa derived epg
epg-config sieve sieve-mode sieve-manage nnir gnus-sum gnus-group mm-url
url url-proxy url-privacy url-expand url-methods url-history url-cookie
url-util url-parse auth-source eieio byte-opt bytecomp byte-compile
cconv macroexp assoc password-cache url-vars mailcap gnus-undo nnmail
mail-source gnus-start gnus-spec gnus-int gnus-range message format-spec
rfc822 mml mml-sec mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231
rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader gnus-win gnus
gnus-ems nnoo nnheader gnus-util time-date mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils
pcase advice advice-preload pager w3m-search w3m help-fns browse-url
doc-view easymenu jka-compr dired regexp-opt image-mode timezone
w3m-hist w3m-fb bookmark-w3m w3m-ems w3m-ccl ccl w3m-favicon w3m-image
w3m-proc w3m-util wid-edit w3m-wget server easy-mmode cl edmacro kmacro
paren tooltip ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel dos-w32
disp-table ls-lisp w32-win w32-vars tool-bar dnd fontset image fringe
lisp-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar
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
minibuffer button faces cus-face files text-properties overlay sha1 md5
base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable
backquote make-network-process multi-tty emacs)

Message #8 received at 8885 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Juanma Barranquero <lekktu <at> gmail.com>
To: nyc4bos <at> aol.com
Cc: 8885 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#8885: 24.0.50; Temporary failure with `select-frame-by-name'
	on Windows
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2011 23:57:03 +0200

> AllowSetForegroundWindow failed with w32 error 5: Access is denied.
>
> This error appears to occur when Emacs is "busy" (for example when in the
> middle of loading a large .el file, etc) and executing the emacsclient
> `--eval' command from a Windows command prompt.

I cannot reproduce it, and currently the return value of
AllowSetForegroundWindow is not checked.

But, according to
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms632668(VS.85).aspx the
function will fail if the calling process cannot set the foreground
window.

So it's possible that you're invoking emacsclient at at moment when
it's unable to set the foreground window, for example if the
foreground lock timeout has not expired.

All in all, trying to make emacsclient give focus to emacs is never
going to be 100% reliable.

    Juanma

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