GNU bug report logs - #79067
31.0.50; Cannot async-shell-command anymore

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

From: Manuel Giraud <manuel <at> ledu-giraud.fr>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 31.0.50; Cannot async-shell-command anymore
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2025 10:30:32 +0200

Hi,

From a current build, I can't call `async-shell-command' anymore.  Here
is my recipe:

  - emacs -Q
  - M-& ls <RET>

I get the following error:

shell-command: Asynchronous shell commands cannot output to current buffer


In GNU Emacs 31.0.50 (build 1, x86_64-unknown-openbsd7.7) of 2025-07-21
 built on computer
Repository revision: 59575c32aa1e0d28c1c7113f1ce73cb64cec8e92
Repository branch: master
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.12101018
System Description: OpenBSD computer 7.7 GENERIC.MP#52 amd64

Configured using:
 'configure CC=egcc CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include
 LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib MAKEINFO=gmakeinfo --prefix=/home/manuel/emacs
 --bindir=/home/manuel/bin --with-x-toolkit=no
 --with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no --without-cairo --without-dbus
 --without-gconf --without-gsettings --without-compress-install'

Configured features:
FREETYPE GIF GLIB GMP GNUTLS HARFBUZZ JPEG LCMS2 LIBOTF LIBXML2 M17N_FLT
MODULES NOTIFY KQUEUE OLDXMENU PDUMPER PNG RSVG SQLITE3 THREADS TIFF
TREE_SITTER WEBP X11 XDBE XFT XIM XINERAMA XINPUT2 XPM XRANDR ZLIB

Important settings:
  value of $LC_CTYPE: en_US.UTF-8
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: Dired by name

Minor modes in effect:
  gnus-dired-mode: t
  display-time-mode: t
  display-battery-mode: t
  desktop-save-mode: t
  exwm-randr-mode: t
  server-mode: t
  electric-pair-mode: t
  override-global-mode: t
  repeat-mode: t
  global-eldoc-mode: t
  eldoc-mode: t
  show-paren-mode: t
  electric-indent-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  minibuffer-regexp-mode: t
  buffer-read-only: t
  line-number-mode: t
  indent-tabs-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t

Load-path shadows:
/home/manuel/prog/elisp/exwm/exwm hides /home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/exwm-0.34/exwm
/home/manuel/prog/elisp/exwm/exwm-xsettings hides /home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/exwm-0.34/exwm-xsettings
/home/manuel/prog/elisp/exwm/exwm-xim hides /home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/exwm-0.34/exwm-xim
/home/manuel/prog/elisp/exwm/exwm-workspace hides /home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/exwm-0.34/exwm-workspace
/home/manuel/prog/elisp/exwm/exwm-randr hides /home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/exwm-0.34/exwm-randr
/home/manuel/prog/elisp/exwm/exwm-manage hides /home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/exwm-0.34/exwm-manage
/home/manuel/prog/elisp/exwm/exwm-layout hides /home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/exwm-0.34/exwm-layout
/home/manuel/prog/elisp/exwm/exwm-input hides /home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/exwm-0.34/exwm-input
/home/manuel/prog/elisp/exwm/exwm-floating hides /home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/exwm-0.34/exwm-floating
/home/manuel/prog/elisp/exwm/exwm-systemtray hides /home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/exwm-0.34/exwm-systemtray
/home/manuel/prog/elisp/exwm/exwm-core hides /home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/exwm-0.34/exwm-core
/home/manuel/prog/elisp/exwm/exwm-background hides /home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/exwm-0.34/exwm-background
/home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/ef-themes-1.10.0/theme-loaddefs hides /home/manuel/emacs/share/emacs/31.0.50/lisp/theme-loaddefs
/home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/idlwave-6.5.1/idlwave hides /home/manuel/emacs/share/emacs/31.0.50/lisp/obsolete/idlwave
/home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/idlwave-6.5.1/idlw-toolbar hides /home/manuel/emacs/share/emacs/31.0.50/lisp/obsolete/idlw-toolbar
/home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/idlwave-6.5.1/idlw-shell hides /home/manuel/emacs/share/emacs/31.0.50/lisp/obsolete/idlw-shell
/home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/idlwave-6.5.1/idlw-help hides /home/manuel/emacs/share/emacs/31.0.50/lisp/obsolete/idlw-help
/home/manuel/.emacs.d/elpa/idlwave-6.5.1/idlw-complete-structtag hides /home/manuel/emacs/share/emacs/31.0.50/lisp/obsolete/idlw-complete-structtag

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr shortdoc comp-common help-fns radix-tree emacsbug
lisp-mnt texinfo texinfo-loaddefs conf-mode emacs-news-mode org-indent
org-agenda flyspell ispell tex-mode compile shell view hi-lock
c++-ts-mode c-ts-mode mhtml-mode css-mode js c-ts-common imenu sgml-mode
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vc-dispatcher format-spec time battery desktop frameset exwm-randr
xcb-randr exwm exwm-input xcb-keysyms xcb-xkb exwm-manage exwm-floating
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tablist-autoloads transmission-autoloads xelb-autoloads
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jit-lock font-lock syntax font-core term/tty-colors frame minibuffer
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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 kqueue lcms2 dynamic-setting font-render-setting xinput2 x
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Memory information:
((conses 16 825915 601162) (symbols 48 50206 2)
 (strings 32 241027 35648) (string-bytes 1 5956291)
 (vectors 16 147594) (vector-slots 8 2090329 43874)
 (floats 8 650 1102) (intervals 56 17196 162) (buffers 1064 122))

-- 
Manuel Giraud

Message #8 received at 79067 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Manuel Giraud <manuel <at> ledu-giraud.fr>
To: 79067 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#79067: 31.0.50; Cannot async-shell-command anymore
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2025 11:51:38 +0200

Manuel Giraud <manuel <at> ledu-giraud.fr> writes:

> Hi,
>
>From a current build, I can't call `async-shell-command' anymore.  Here
> is my recipe:
>
>   - emacs -Q
>   - M-& ls <RET>
>
> I get the following error:
>
> shell-command: Asynchronous shell commands cannot output to current
> buffer

I'm not quite sure about the logic at play here but the following patch
fixes my issue:

diff --git a/lisp/simple.el b/lisp/simple.el
index 88886de05c4..f7f059793ca 100644
--- a/lisp/simple.el
+++ b/lisp/simple.el
@@ -4715,7 +4715,8 @@ shell-command
 	;; Output goes in a separate buffer.
 	(if (string-match "[ \t]*&[ \t]*\\'" command)
 	    ;; Command ending with ampersand means asynchronous.
-            (let* ((_ (or (bufferp output-buffer)
+            (let* ((_ (or (null output-buffer)
+                          (bufferp output-buffer)
                           (stringp output-buffer)
                           (error "Asynchronous shell commands cannot output to current buffer")))
                    (buffer (get-buffer-create
-- 
Manuel Giraud

Message #11 received at 79067 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Stephen Berman <stephen.berman <at> gmx.net>
To: Manuel Giraud <manuel <at> ledu-giraud.fr>
Cc: 79067 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#79067: 31.0.50; Cannot async-shell-command anymore
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2025 12:27:38 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Mon, 21 Jul 2025 11:51:38 +0200 Manuel Giraud <manuel <at> ledu-giraud.fr> wrote:

> Manuel Giraud <manuel <at> ledu-giraud.fr> writes:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>>From a current build, I can't call `async-shell-command' anymore.  Here
>> is my recipe:
>>
>>   - emacs -Q
>>   - M-& ls <RET>
>>
>> I get the following error:
>>
>> shell-command: Asynchronous shell commands cannot output to current
>> buffer
>
> I'm not quite sure about the logic at play here but the following patch
> fixes my issue:
>
> diff --git a/lisp/simple.el b/lisp/simple.el
> index 88886de05c4..f7f059793ca 100644
> --- a/lisp/simple.el
> +++ b/lisp/simple.el
> @@ -4715,7 +4715,8 @@ shell-command
>  	;; Output goes in a separate buffer.
>  	(if (string-match "[ \t]*&[ \t]*\\'" command)
>  	    ;; Command ending with ampersand means asynchronous.
> -            (let* ((_ (or (bufferp output-buffer)
> +            (let* ((_ (or (null output-buffer)
> +                          (bufferp output-buffer)
>                            (stringp output-buffer)
>                            (error "Asynchronous shell commands cannot output to current buffer")))
>                     (buffer (get-buffer-create

The commit message of 852009b4f1c9, which added the bufferp and stringp
checks and the error message, says 'Improve error message for "C-u M-!
something &"'.  An alternative is to ignore the prefix argument when the
command is asynchronous, just like `async-shell-command' ignores the
prefix argument:

[Message part 2 (text/x-patch, inline)]

diff --git a/lisp/simple.el b/lisp/simple.el
index 88886de05c4..c64d3e5285b 100644
--- a/lisp/simple.el
+++ b/lisp/simple.el
@@ -4715,9 +4715,12 @@ shell-command
 	;; Output goes in a separate buffer.
 	(if (string-match "[ \t]*&[ \t]*\\'" command)
 	    ;; Command ending with ampersand means asynchronous.
-            (let* ((_ (or (bufferp output-buffer)
-                          (stringp output-buffer)
-                          (error "Asynchronous shell commands cannot output to current buffer")))
+            (let* ((output-buffer (unless (consp output-buffer)
+                                    ;; Output of asynchronous commands
+                                    ;; cannot be inserted into current
+                                    ;; buffer, so if OUTPUT-BUFFER is a
+                                    ;; prefix argument, ignore it.
+                                    output-buffer))
                    (buffer (get-buffer-create
                             (or output-buffer shell-command-buffer-name-async)))
                    (bname (buffer-name buffer))

[Message part 3 (text/plain, inline)]

Steve Berman

Message #14 received at 79067 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Manuel Giraud <manuel <at> ledu-giraud.fr>
Cc: 79067 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#79067: 31.0.50; Cannot async-shell-command anymore
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2025 13:42:16 +0300

> From: Manuel Giraud <manuel <at> ledu-giraud.fr>
> Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2025 10:30:32 +0200
> 
> >From a current build, I can't call `async-shell-command' anymore.  Here
> is my recipe:
> 
>   - emacs -Q
>   - M-& ls <RET>
> 
> I get the following error:
> 
> shell-command: Asynchronous shell commands cannot output to current buffer

Sorry about that, should be fixed now.

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