Daemon mode: Defer interactive prompts on startup?

Question

(Note that, title to the contrary, this question is not the same as How to start in daemon mode and suppress interactive dialogs?, as that question was "answered" by the submitter eliminating what was causing a particular prompt to appear.)

I'd like to know if there is a general way to keep emacs --daemon from hanging forever waiting for an answer to a prompt displayed in a minibuffer that doesn't exist yet.

It's impossible to connect with an emacsclient to answer these prompts, because the server doesn't start until Emacs finishes the startup sequence. (This means, if you have ALTERNATE_EDITOR set to the empty string, which makes an emacsclient that can't find a server start a new daemon, you can end up with multiple Emacs daemons all stuck and waiting.) I have to killall emacs and fix the problem before continuing.

I can play whack-a-mole with each thing causing a prompt on startup when I identify it (by starting Emacs in non-daemon mode and seeing what it's asking), but it's not a solution because it can't stop the next daemon from hanging on startup for a new reason.

To give an example: a common reason it would hang was after a system reboot or Emacs crash, when the first post-reboot Emacs wanted to know whether it was okay to steal lockfiles from the defunct Emacs. I could fix that by creating advice to make that prompt always answer "yes" without interaction. But then, one of the files that was open at the previous session save was a TRAMP file requiring a sudo or SSH password, so the daemon's stuck waiting on a password prompt. So I fix that by manually editing the session file (with vi or emacs -q!) to remove the offending files—but that doesn't keep it from happening next time.

So, I can stop loading my session automatically on startup and change it to a command I must manually execute from my first emacsclient. But if it isn't loading my session in the background so it's ready by the time I'm ready to use it, the entire purpose of the daemon is lost!

So what I'd like is:

• (Best) Some way to defer minibuffer prompts until I open an emacsclient, while still completing the rest of initialization.
• (OK) Some way to make all minibuffer prompts I haven't already advised otherwise as described above just return no unless an emacsclient is running. I can live with my TRAMP buffers erroring out so long as it mostly works.

Is there any way to achieve either of these goals?

Answer 1

Not exactly what you are asking for but maybe a solution to your original problem:

I'd like to know if there is a general way to keep emacs --daemon from hanging forever waiting for an answer to a prompt displayed in a minibuffer that doesn't exist yet.

If the daemon gives you a graphical frame for answering questions arising in its startup-phase you do not get stuck anymore.

The code below defines a general advice my-with-initial-frame that opens a frame on the first available display (e.g., :0.0).

That advice can be added easily to querying commands like y-or-n-p or read-passwd, as it is demonstrated below.

Just opening a frame gives you a rather coarse possibility to answer the queries on the user interface. One could also use a dialog box for y-or-n-p but that would require special solutions for specific querying commands. I wanted to avoid that.

If you try that code in your init file make sure it is the first thing there.

(when (daemonp)

  (defun my-with-initial-frame (&rest _)
    "Ensure a frame on display :0.0 and ignore args."
    (let* ((display-list (x-display-list))
           (display-re (and display-list (regexp-opt display-list)))
           (term (and display-re (cl-some (lambda (term) (and (string-match display-re (terminal-name term)) term)) (terminal-list))))
           (frame (and term (cl-some (lambda (frame) (and (frame-live-p frame) frame)) (frames-on-display-list term)))))
      (select-frame (or frame (make-frame-on-display (getenv "DISPLAY"))))))

  (message "Advising querying functions with `my-with-initial-frame'.")
  (advice-add 'y-or-n-p :before #'my-with-initial-frame)
  (advice-add 'read-passwd :before #'my-with-initial-frame))

---

Test:

Assumptions:

Have a running xserver which programs can connect to via the DISPLAY environment variable.

Input at xterm:

emacs --daemon

emacsclient --eval '(y-or-n-p "A")'

There opens a frame with the y-or-n-p query prompt A (y or n). Answer that query and try again:

emacsclient --eval '(y-or-n-p "B")'

New query with prompt B (y or n) in the same frame. Close that frame, e.g., with C-x 5 0 and try again:

emacsclient --eval '(y-or-n-p "C")'

A new frame opens with the query prompt C (y or n).

The same works for password input.

Answer 2

Our discussion cleared that you do not have any X-server running this renders my first solution useless for you.

In the following I present a second solution that works with text terminal frames.

When your initialization requires user input through one the functions advised with avoid-initial-terminal Emacs waits until you open a text terminal frame. The prompt appears in the minibuffer of that frame and you can give your interactive response.

Code-related infos are given as comments in the code. There are TODO markers with descriptions that show you where to insert your own configuration. Currently there are test forms in there that validate the code.

;; TODO: Do here configure the server if needed.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Startup the server:
;; Analysis of read_from_minibuffer in src/minibuf.c and daemon_type in src/emacs.c
;; shows that daemon-initialized must have run before read-passwd / read-string
;; works on frames. Before it only works on stdin & stdout.
(server-start) ;;< early start
(let ((after-init-time before-init-time))
  (daemon-initialized)) ;; Finalize the daemon, 

(advice-add 'daemon-initialized :override #'ignore)
;;< Ignore `daemon-initialized' after initialization. It may only run once!
;; Now the background emacs is no longer marked as daemon. It just runs the server.

(defun prevent-server-start (&rest _ignore)
  "Prevent starting a server one time after `server-start' has been advised with this."
  (advice-remove 'server-start #'prevent-server-start))

(advice-add 'server-start :override #'prevent-server-start)

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Prepare waiting for a real terminal frame when user input is required:

(defun avoid-initial-terminal (fun &rest args)
  "Wait until we are no longer on \"intial-terminal\".
Afterwards run `fun' with frame on the other terminal selected."
  (message "Avoiding initial terminal. Terminal: %S" (get-device-terminal nil))
  (while (string-equal
      (terminal-name (get-device-terminal nil))
      "initial_terminal")
    (sleep-for 1))
  ;; (message "Selected frame: %S; Running %S with %S." (selected-frame) fun args)
  (apply fun args))

(advice-add 'read-string :around #'avoid-initial-terminal)

(advice-add 'read-passwd :around #'avoid-initial-terminal)

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; TODO: Your initialization that is not daemon related
;; and may require user input:

;; Currently this is just a test.
(read-passwd "Passwd: ")

(read-string "String: ")

(y-or-n-p "y-or-n query")

Test: Emacs-version: 26.1

1st) Run emacs --daemon on a console.

2nd) Run emacsclient --tty on another console. You are asked there for a password and a string. Afterwards you are also required to answer a y-or-n-p query.

Answer 3

I think defering the prompts is going to be difficult in general, but it should be fairly easy to change Emacs so that such prompts immediately signal an error.

Not only that, but if you can't answer those prompts without a lot of gymnastics, I think it qualifies as a bug, so I'd recommend you submit a bug report for that.