Connecting to a remote machine with tramp that may have VC (subversion) related
files, I tend to see a large number of repeated messages in the *Messages*
buffer. For example:
Type "q" in help window to restore previous buffer.
[2 times]
Mark saved where search started
[69 times]
Mark saved where search started
...
Quit
mwheel-scroll: Beginning of buffer [7 times]
[7 times]
Quit [2 times]
...
Quit
[14 times]
Mark set [2 times]
Mark set
Mark set
Mark set [3 times]
Debugging this has been a pain and it's been very difficult to even get to understanding that the issue is some interaction with TRAMP and VC.
Namely, I understood that in other emacs sessions, I didn't have repeated
messages. Obviously the issue doesn't exist in emacs -Q either.
Furthermore, I tried the classic emacs configuration bisection, e.g., comment
out all configuration and slowly introduce sections until the error appears.
However, I was unable to uncover the issue with any of these methods.
Finally, I discovered some Emacs debugger functionallity for Emacs LISP.
I tried M-x RET trace-function RET message RET. However, all I received was
quickly filling buffer of empty calls to message.
======================================================================
1 -> (message nil)
1 <- message: nil
======================================================================
1 -> (message "%s" "")
1 <- message: ""
======================================================================
1 -> (message nil)
1 <- message: nil
======================================================================
1 -> (message "Mark set")
1 <- message: "Mark set"
======================================================================
1 -> (message "Mark set")
1 <- message: "Mark set"
======================================================================
1 -> (message "%s" "")
1 <- message: ""
======================================================================
1 -> (message "%s" "Mark set")
1 <- message: "Mark set"
======================================================================
1 -> (message "%s" "")
1 <- message: ""
======================================================================
1 -> (message "%s" "Mark set")
1 <- message: "Mark set"
======================================================================
1 -> (message "%s" "")
1 <- message: ""
======================================================================
1 -> (message "%s" "Mark set")
1 <- message: "Mark set"
======================================================================
1 -> (message "Mark set")
1 <- message: "Mark set"
======================================================================
Which is the issue as described, but doesn't point to where the issue is coming from.
I knew I needed the function call trace, as that will tell me what function is
calling message.
Next, I tried using debug-on-entry on message. Finally, I have something!
(Actual file names changed for reasons).
Debugger entered--entering a function:
* message("%s" "")
tramp-sh-handle-vc-registered(#("/ssh:remote-host:/some/svn/file" 1 4 (helm-ff-file t) 5 24 (helm-ff-file t)))
apply(tramp-sh-handle-vc-registered #("/ssh:remote-host:/some/svn/file" 1 4 (helm-ff-file t) 5 24 (helm-ff-file t)))
tramp-sh-file-name-handler(vc-registered #("/ssh:remote-host:/some/svn/file" 1 4 (helm-ff-file t) 5 24 (helm-ff-file t)))
apply(tramp-sh-file-name-handler vc-registered #("/ssh:remote-host:/some/svn/file" 1 4 (helm-ff-file t) 5 24 (helm-ff-file t)))
tramp-file-name-handler(vc-registered #("/ssh:remote-host:/some/svn/file" 1 4 (helm-ff-file t) 5 24 (helm-ff-file t)))
vc-registered(#("/ssh:remote-host:/some/svn/file" 1 4 (helm-ff-file t) 5 24 (helm-ff-file t)))
vc-backend(#("/ssh:remote-host:/some/svn/file" 1 4 (helm-ff-file t) 5 24 (helm-ff-file t)))
vc-refresh-state()
#f(compiled-function () #<bytecode 0x215bf89>)()
auto-revert-handler@bug21559(#f(compiled-function () #<bytecode 0x215bf89>))
apply(auto-revert-handler@bug21559 #f(compiled-function () #<bytecode 0x215bf89>) nil)
auto-revert-handler()
#f(compiled-function () #<bytecode 0x215bffd>)()
apply(#f(compiled-function () #<bytecode 0x215bffd>) nil)
auto-revert-buffers()
apply(auto-revert-buffers nil)
timer-event-handler([t 24045 51629 615589 5 auto-revert-buffers nil nil 963000])
But, what is the solution to resolve this?
I have set tramp-verbose to 1. However, this might be hiding the
particular behaviour instead of spamming a load of messages about how
TRAMP is performing VC refreshing.
For now, since this is issue is being caused by some files under SVN control that I have no interest in interacting with, i.e., it's not my repository and I don't have write access anyways, I'm simply disabling the VC backend[0]:
(setq-default vc-handled-backends '(Git))
However, I would like to have a better solution in case I do ever need to interact with SVN (hopefully not, but this feels very hacky).
This had led to the following commit on my dotfiles, which also has some other variables that may be in the middle of the interplay:
(setq-default auto-revert-check-vc-info nil)
(setq-default auto-revert-remote-files nil)
How might I more "properly" resolve this issue?
