Args out of range #<killed buffer>, 0, 0

[amelio-vazquez-reina]

Original post in StackExchange here.

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I have been trying to use visual-regexp-steroids without luck (a thread on this package can be found here)

When I do vr/replace (C-c p), I get a prompt in the minibuffer. I can enter regexps and Emacs shows interactively every match in the buffer. So far so good.

The problem comes when I click RET and then enter another string (the one I want to replace my matches with). If I now do RET (to do the actual replacements), I get the following message in the mini-buffer:

Args out of range #<killed buffer>, 0, 0

Why? How can I debug the problem and get it to work?

[benma]

Sorry for taking so long to respond, I have been away on travels.

Since I am not experiencing this problem, it would be helpful if you could provide a setup in which I can reproduce this (minimal init.el, emacs version, etc.).

To zero in on the problem:

• Does visual-regexp (without the steroids add-on) work for you?
• Does it work if you use the emacs engine? Use vr/select-replace, choose the emacs engine.

[amelio-vazquez-reina]

Thanks @benma for looking into it. I will definitely try those suggestions this afternoon and post what I get.

[amelio-vazquez-reina]

Hi @benma: vr/select-replace works perfectly well with the emacs engine, but it fails with Args out of range: #<killed buffer>, 0, 0 with the python engine. What Python version am I supposed to use with it? I think I am using Python 3.4.3 under the hood since my entire dev system is for Python 3.x.

[amelio-vazquez-reina]

Also, vr/mc-mark works without problem, but vr/replace doesn't (I get the same error)

[amelio-vazquez-reina]

In case it helps, I am using:

GNU Emacs 25.0.50.1 (x86_64-apple-darwin14.5.0, NS appkit-1348.17 Version 10.10.5 (Build 14F27))

[benma]

This Emacs and Python version should both work. Since you are seeing the matches when entering the search string, Emacs and Python are able to talk.

Please set debug-on-error to t (M-x toggle-debug-on-error) before you run vr/replace, and paste the stack trace after the error happens.
Do this while running emacs with emacs -q (which loads Emacs without any customizations), and try it in the default scratch buffer. You can use M-x load-library to load visual-regexp-steroids.

[amelio-vazquez-reina]

Thanks @benma Below is the trace for a test with vr/select-replace with the python engine.

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (args-out-of-range #<buffer  *temp*> 0 0)
  match-string(1)
  vr--parse-replace("On GitHub as avazquez@xxx.com\n363 370 Zm9v\ncmVwbGFjZWQgMSBtYXRjaGVz\n")
  vr--run-command("python /Users/avazquez/.emacs.d/elpa/visual-regexp-steroids-20150411.416/regexp.py replace    --regexp \\(\\?m\\)arabica --replace foo" vr--parse-replace)
  ad-Advice-vr--get-replacements(#[(feedback feedback-limit) "\306\307\310\306\211\211r^Hq\210\311ed\")^Y^Z^[^\^]^^^[^^^\\3121\277^@\3131\263^@\314 ^V^\r^Hq\210^N^]b\210\315^^^^^N^^\205\255^@\3161C^@\3$
  apply(ad-Advice-vr--get-replacements #[(feedback feedback-limit) "\306\307\310\306\211\211r^Hq\210\311ed\")^Y^Z^[^\^]^^^[^^^\\3121\277^@\3131\263^@\314 ^V^\r^Hq\210^N^]b\210\315^^^^^N^^\205\255^@\316$
  vr--get-replacements(nil nil)
  vr--do-replace()
  vr/replace("arabica" "foo" 1 10602)
  funcall-interactively(vr/replace "arabica" "foo" 1 10602)
  call-interactively(vr/replace)
  vr/select-replace()
  funcall-interactively(vr/select-replace)
  call-interactively(vr/select-replace record nil)
  command-execute(vr/select-replace record)
  execute-extended-command(nil "vr/select-replace" "vr/select-re")
  funcall-interactively(execute-extended-command nil "vr/select-replace" "vr/select-re")
  call-interactively(execute-extended-command nil nil)
  command-execute(execute-extended-command)

Let me know if there is anything else I can provide or test.

[benma]

Seems like your Python interpreter inserts "On GitHub as avazquez@xxx.com" on either stdout or stderr, which messes with the parsing.

Can you report the output of
echo arabica | python /Users/avazquez/.emacs.d/elpa/visual-regexp-steroids-20150411.416/regexp.py replace --regexp arabica --replace foo?

Does it contain the "On Github ..." string? If so, is it printed on stdout or stderr (if it is stderr, I can easily write a patch to fix it)? In any case, try to figure out where it comes from and get rid of it ;) I googled for that string but couldn't really find anything.

What happens if you use python2 (python2.7.x interpreter) instead of python3?

[amelio-vazquez-reina]

Thank you @benma That did it! I removed the line that was printing that string to stdout. More specifically, I moved it from my .zshenv to .zshrc (zsh is my default shell), and that fixed it. I think I am all set! I appreciate your help on this. Thanks again!

[benma]

If you don't mind, please update the Stackoverflow post as solved.

[amelio-vazquez-reina]

Thank you @benma. Of course. I just updated the Q&A with an answer and marked it as solved.