"Don't know how to make a localized variable an alias" error when loading in some modes

[jml]

I got this error:

Don't know how to make a localized variable an alias

After running yas-global-mode in rust-mode. Debugging revealed that it happened when yasnippet defined backwards aliases:

(define-obsolete-variable-alias 'yas-extra-modes 'yas--extra-modes "0.8.1")
...
(dolist (sym yas--backported-syms) ...

Commenting out these blocks and reloading prevented the error.

[npostavs]

See Important note regarding bug reporting, it's not clear to me exactly how to reproduce this. I imagine a call to make-local-variable is involved, and maybe the precise order of calls?

[npostavs]

Closing as I don't know how to reproduce this. I have some ideas how to fix it based on the description, but I won't try if I can't test that the fix works...

[vjohansen]

I have this bug now after updating all packages.

Windows 7, "GNU Emacs 24.5.1 (i686-pc-mingw32) of 2015-04-11 on LEG570"

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (error "Don't know how to make a localized variable an alias")
  defvaralias(yas/dont-activate yas-dont-activate)
  (progn (make-obsolete-variable backported sym "yasnippet 0.8") (defvaralias backported sym))
  (if (boundp sym) (progn (make-obsolete-variable backported sym "yasnippet 0.8") (defvaralias backported sym)))
  (let ((backported (intern (replace-regexp-in-string "^yas-" "yas/" (symbol-name sym))))) (if (boundp sym) (progn (make-obsolete-variable backported sym "yasnippet 0.8") (defvaralias backported sym))) (if (fboundp sym) (progn (make-obsolete backported sym "yasnippet 0.8") (defalias backported sym))))
  (while --dolist-tail-- (setq sym (car --dolist-tail--)) (let ((backported (intern (replace-regexp-in-string "^yas-" "yas/" (symbol-name sym))))) (if (boundp sym) (progn (make-obsolete-variable backported sym "yasnippet 0.8") (defvaralias backported sym))) (if (fboundp sym) (progn (make-obsolete backported sym "yasnippet 0.8") (defalias backported sym)))) (setq --dolist-tail-- (cdr --dolist-tail--)))
  (let ((--dolist-tail-- yas--backported-syms) sym) (while --dolist-tail-- (setq sym (car --dolist-tail--)) (let ((backported (intern (replace-regexp-in-string "^yas-" "yas/" (symbol-name sym))))) (if (boundp sym) (progn (make-obsolete-variable backported sym "yasnippet 0.8") (defvaralias backported sym))) (if (fboundp sym) (progn (make-obsolete backported sym "yasnippet 0.8") (defalias backported sym)))) (setq --dolist-tail-- (cdr --dolist-tail--))))
  eval-buffer(#<buffer  *load*> nil "c:/users/vagn/.emacs.d/elpa/yasnippet-20150811.1222/yasnippet.el" nil t)  ; Reading at buffer position 184627
  load-with-code-conversion("c:/users/vagn/.emacs.d/elpa/yasnippet-20150811.1222/yasnippet.el" "c:/users/vagn/.emacs.d/elpa/yasnippet-20150811.1222/yasnippet.el" nil t)
  (yas-global-mode t)
  eval((yas-global-mode t) nil)
  eval-last-sexp-1(nil)
  eval-last-sexp(nil)
  call-interactively(eval-last-sexp nil nil)
  command-execute(eval-last-sexp)

[npostavs]

Can you get this error starting from emacs -Q?

[vjohansen]

No. it works when using -Q

Now I can start emacs without error and it is only when I eval (yas-global-mode t) i get the error

Before it happened during initialization.

The only important change I think I did was to bytecompile yasnippet.el (I deleted the elc files to get a better backtrace)

So now yasnippet is enabled after the initialization but I cannot turn it off (I get "Don't know how to make a localized variable an alias"). With -Q I can turn it off.

[vjohansen]

When I press TAB on file in a magit to show a diff I now get

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument stringp yas-try-key-from-whitespace)
  skip-syntax-backward(yas-try-key-from-whitespace)
  (save-excursion (skip-syntax-backward syntax) (setq start (point)))
  (while (and (not done) syntaxes) (setq syntax (car syntaxes)) (setq syntaxes (cdr syntaxes)) (save-excursion (skip-syntax-backward syntax) (setq start (point))) (setq templates (mapcan (function (lambda (table) (yas/fetch table (buffer-substring-no-properties start end)))) (yas/get-snippet-tables))) (if templates (setq done t) (setq start end)))
  (let ((start (point)) (end (point)) (syntaxes yas/key-syntaxes) syntax done templates) (while (and (not done) syntaxes) (setq syntax (car syntaxes)) (setq syntaxes (cdr syntaxes)) (save-excursion (skip-syntax-backward syntax) (setq start (point))) (setq templates (mapcan (function (lambda (table) (yas/fetch table (buffer-substring-no-properties start end)))) (yas/get-snippet-tables))) (if templates (setq done t) (setq start end))) (list templates start end))
  yas/current-key()
  (if field (save-restriction (narrow-to-region (yas/field-start field) (yas/field-end field)) (yas/current-key)) (yas/current-key))
  (setq templates-and-pos (if field (save-restriction (narrow-to-region (yas/field-start field) (yas/field-end field)) (yas/current-key)) (yas/current-key)))
  (if (and yas/expand-only-for-last-commands (not (member last-command yas/expand-only-for-last-commands))) nil (setq templates-and-pos (if field (save-restriction (narrow-to-region (yas/field-start field) (yas/field-end field)) (yas/current-key)) (yas/current-key))))
  (let (templates-and-pos) (if (and yas/expand-only-for-last-commands (not (member last-command yas/expand-only-for-last-commands))) nil (setq templates-and-pos (if field (save-restriction (narrow-to-region (yas/field-start field) (yas/field-end field)) (yas/current-key)) (yas/current-key)))) (if (and templates-and-pos (first templates-and-pos)) (yas/expand-or-prompt-for-template (first templates-and-pos) (second templates-and-pos) (car (cdr (cdr templates-and-pos)))) (yas/fallback (quote trigger-key))))
  yas/expand()
  call-interactively(yas/expand nil nil)
  command-execute(yas/expand)

[vjohansen]

Please ignore these bug reports for now . It seems I had two yasnippet installations (git clone and from elpa).

I was playing around with https://github.com/AndreaCrotti/minimal-emacs-configuration/blob/master/init.el which installed a yasnippet for me

[joaotavora]

It seems I had two yasnippet installations (git clone and from elpa).

Does seem like a recipe for messing things up :-)

[baerrach]

I found I was using the old functions through copy-and-paste :) which were being used in make-local-variable.

So look closely at your code and you should be able to spot the problem.