[h-e-w] Help:

[Alex Shan Zhu]

Hi,

I had a problem of using diff (or ediff) in my emacs installed on Windows XP. I started emacs by running "emacs --debug-init." And I got the following message.

-------------------------------------------------------
Debugger entered--Lisp error: (file-error "Searching for program" "no such file or directory" "diff")
  call-process("diff" nil nil nil "--binary" "NUL" "NUL")
  apply(call-process ("diff" nil nil nil "--binary" "NUL" "NUL"))
  ediff-diff-mandatory-option("diff")
  ediff-reset-diff-options(ediff-diff-options "")
  custom-initialize-reset(ediff-diff-options "")
  custom-declare-variable(ediff-diff-options "" ("c:/emacs/lisp/ediff-diff.elc" . -3439) :set ediff-reset-diff-options :type string :group ediff-diff)

  require(ediff-diff)
  byte-code("ÂÃ!ˆÄBÅBÆBÇBÈBÉBÊBËBÌBÍBÎBÏÐ!ˆÏÑ!ˆÏÒ!ˆÏÓ!ˆÏÔ!ˆÏÕ!ˆ   ƒP ÏÖ!ˆÂ‡" [current-load-list ediff-xemacs-p provide ediff-util ediff-patch-diagnostics ediff-patchbufer ediff-use-toolbar-p ediff-toolbar-height ediff-toolbar ediff-toolbar-3way bottom-toolbar bottom-toolbar-visible-p bottom-toolbar-height mark-active ediff-emacs-p require ediff-init ediff-help ediff-mult ediff-wind ediff-diff ediff-merg ediff-tbar] 2)

  require(ediff-util)
  byte-code("ÀÁ!ˆÂÁÃÄÅÆÇÈ& ˆÉÊ!ˆÉË!‡" [provide ediff-mult custom-declare-group nil "Multi-file and multi-buffer processing in Ediff" :prefix "ediff-" :group ediff require ediff-init ediff-util] 8)

  require(ediff-mult)
  byte-code("ÁÂ!ˆÃBÄBÅBÆÇ!ˆÆÈ!ˆÉÂÊËÌÍÎÏ& ‡" [current-load-list provide ediff cvs-cookie-handle ediff-last-dir-patch ediff-patch-default-directory require ediff-init ediff-mult custom-declare-group nil "A comprehensive visual interface to diff & patch" :tag "Ediff" :group tools] 8)

  require(ediff)
  eval-buffer(#<buffer  *load*> nil "~/.emacs" nil t)
  load-with-code-conversion("c:/EmacsHome/.emacs" "~/.emacs" t t)
  load("~/.emacs" t t)
  #[nil "…—    Æ=ƒ ÇÈQ‚5     É=ƒ' ÊÇËÌ#ƒ# Í‚5 ΂5    Ï=ƒ1 Ђ5 ÇÑQÒÓ\nÒ‰#ˆ
Ò=ƒF Ë
ƒˆ Ô
!Õšƒˆ Ö
!‰×PØ
!ƒd
‚o Ø\f!ƒn \f‚o ˉƒ‡ Ù\f
\"ƒ… ÚÛ\f
#ˆÜÝ!ˆ\f*†– Ë ÓÞÒ‰#))‡" [init-file-user system-type user-init-file-1 user-init-file source alt ms-dos "~" "/_emacs" windows-nt directory-files nil "^\\.emacs\\(\\.elc?\\)?$" "~/.emacs" "~/_emacs" vax-vms "sys$login:.emacs" "/.emacs" t load file-name-extension "elc" file-name-sans-extension ".el" file-exists-p file-newer-than-file-p message "Warning: %s is newer than %s" sit-for 1 "default" inhibit-default-init inhibit-startup-message] 5]()

  command-line()
  normal-top-level()
-----------------------------------------------------

I also got an error message of "Searching for program" "no such file or directory" "diff", when I tried to use the diff function from the menu bar.

But I do have the following files under c:\emacs\lisp,

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Directory of C:\emacs\lisp
diff-mode.el    diff-mode.elc   diff.el         diff.elc
ediff-diff.el    ediff-diff.elc   ediff-help.el    ediff-help.elc
ediff-hook.el    ediff-hook.elc   ediff-init.el    ediff-init.elc
ediff-merg.el    ediff-merg.elc   ediff-mult.el    ediff-mult.elc
ediff-ptch.el    ediff-ptch.elc   ediff-util.el    ediff-util.elc
ediff-vers.el    ediff-vers.elc   ediff-wind.el    ediff-wind.elc
ediff.el         ediff.elc
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How can I fix this problem?

Thank you,

Alex Shan Zhu
408 566-6616