Re: `call-process-region' is stuck in the past

[David Hunter]

Hi Joe,

call-process-region creates a temporary file according to the variable temp-file-name-pattern, 
which should be "$TMPDIR/emacsXXXXXX" or "/tmp/emacsXXXXXX".  When the process 
runs, this file is connected to stdin.  (I assumed that the file name was added to the command line 
arguments; I was wrong.)  The file is destroyed after the process completes, so you should never 
experience ill effects from previous invocations.

I see a possible problem with your lynx command.  According to the users guide for lynx 2.8.6, when 
no startfile is present in the command arguments, then a default file will be displayed.  (I'd bet 
your default file is being displayed in *foo*.)  To read the startfile from stdin, you must use the 
"-stdin" option.  So you probably want to change your command to "lynx -dump 
-stdin".

I also don't understand why you use tcsh to execute lynx.  If the shell is not 
required, you should be able to execute lynx directly, like so:

(call-process-region (point-min) (point-max) "lynx -dump -stdin" nil
                    (get-buffer-create "*foo*"))

Hope this helps.
-Dave

Joe Corneli wrote:
> Here's what happens:
>  
> I switch to some buffer containing some arbitrary HTML code.  
> I evaluate the following form, which is designed to render
> this HTML:
>
>  (call-process-region (point-min) (point-max) "tcsh" nil
>                       (get-buffer-create "*foo*")
>                       nil "-c" "lynx -dump")
>
> I switch to the buffer *foo* and I see (to my annoyance):
>
>     1. [1]Google
>     2. [2]Homepage of Joseph Angus Corneli
>     3. [3]Map of the internet
>
> References
>
>    1. http://www.google.com/
>    2. http://www.ma.utexas.edu/~jcorneli/
>    3. http://www.ma.utexas.edu/~jcorneli/l/map.html
>
>
> This is not what I expected to see, because, as stated above,
> the buffer that I ran this process on had arbitrary HTML code
> that has *nothing to do* with the output seen here.
>
> I did in fact use 'lynx -dump' to generate output that looked
> like this some time ago, but since the I've used it to generate
> lots and lots of different kinds of output. 
>
> The weird thing about it is that I've restarted Emacs in the
> mean time, and I don't even see any files hanging around 
> any of my working/nearby directories with the HTML code to
> generate the above output.  I have no idea where 'lynx -dump'
> is getting the info from.  If I run it under a shell or even
> as a `shell-command' on a file or URL from within Emacs, it
> produces the output I'd expect!  So, I figure, there must
> be something weird going on with `call-process-region' but
> I'm not sure what could be going on. 
>
> Skimming the code, it says that some temporary files are used,
> but I don't know where to look for these files.  Please
> help!  This is too weird!
>
>
>
> In GNU Emacs 22.0.50.1 (powerpc-apple-darwin7.5.0, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
>  of 2005-02-22 on hope-of-a-stone.local
> Distributor `The XFree86 Project, Inc', version 11.0.40300000
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> 'CFLAGS=-I/sw/include' 'CPPFLAGS=-I/sw/include' 'LDFLAGS=-L/sw/lib''
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