Evil search bug breaks Spacemacs

[NightMachinery]

Description

Evil search bug.

Reproduction guide 🪲 Observed behaviour: 👀 💔

• Start Emacs
• Search sth with '/'.
• Without pressing 'RET' click on the main buffer.
• The evil functionality is broken: pressing a single d deletes the line. (Essentially a lot of keys double-press.)
• By clicking on the minibuffer and pressing RET you can make evil normal.
• But if you delete the main buffer and then press RET, evil stays broken.
• You have to restart emacs for it to work normally again.

Expected behaviour: ❤️ 😄
The search should be canceled when the minibuffer loses focus.

System Info 💻

• OS: darwin
• Emacs: 25.3.1
• Spacemacs: 0.300.0
• Spacemacs branch: develop (rev. 5c251f6)
• Graphic display: t
• Distribution: spacemacs
• Editing style: vim
• Completion: helm
• Layers:

(vimscript
 (rust :variables rust-format-on-save t)
 crystal
 (haskell :variables haskell-enable-hindent t)
 html python
 (scala :variables scala-auto-insert-asterisk-in-comments t scala-use-unicode-arrows t scala-auto-insert-asterisk-in-comments t)
 autohotkey helm auto-completion emacs-lisp
 (ibuffer :variables ibuffer-group-buffers-by 'modes)
 coq emoji
 (unicode-fonts :variables unicode-fonts-force-multi-color-on-mac t)
 git
 (java :variables java-backend 'ensime)
 markdown org
 (shell :variables shell-default-height 30 shell-default-position 'bottom)
 spell-checking syntax-checking version-control osx racket clojure)

• System configuration features: NOTIFY ACL LIBXML2 ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS

[CeleritasCelery]

I can't reproduce. But if you think you can reliably reproduce the error, file an issue upstream with evil.

[duianto]

I'm able to reproduce it:

• Start Emacs
• open .spacemacs: SPC f e d
• open the search prompt: /
• select the .spacemacs window: M-1

now d deletes the whole line, and y copies the whole line.

Switching back to the minibuffer SPC w b, and exiting ESC or confirming the previous search term RET, restores d and y's default behaviour of waiting for a motion.

I'm unable to make the issue permanent by deleting a buffer, and confirming the search term.
If I SPC b d delete the .spacemacs buffer. Then I'm still able to switch to the minibuffer SPC w b and can cancel/confirm the search prompt. Now d and y have been restored to their default behaviour.

After deleting the buffer and confirming the search, then the messages buffer shows:

Error in minibuffer-exit-hook (evil-ex-search-stop-session): (error "Selecting deleted buffer")
evil-ex-start-search: Selecting deleted buffer

System Info 💻

• OS: windows-nt
• Emacs: 25.3.1
• Spacemacs: 0.300.0
• Spacemacs branch: develop (rev. 0fa3658)
• Graphic display: t
• Distribution: spacemacs
• Editing style: vim
• Completion: helm
• Layers:

(autohotkey helm emacs-lisp git org spell-checking treemacs version-control)

• System configuration features: XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG SOUND NOTIFY ACL GNUTLS LIBXML2 ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS MODULES

[NightMachinery]

@duianto What should I do? File an issue with evil?

[duianto]

It doesn't seem to be an evil issue, because when I start Emacs, and just load evil, then the / search prompt disappears (gets canceled?), when the .spacemacs buffer is selected, with the mouse, or with C-x o. And both d and y expects a motion.

This is how I only loaded the evil package.

• Start Emacs with the --quick argument to not load any configurations
• Let Emacs know where the packages are located, by evaluating:

(setq package-user-dir "~/.emacs.d/elpa/25.3/develop/")

• M-x package-initialize
• M-: (require 'evil)
• M-x evil-mode

[NightMachinery]

@duianto any idea what’s wrong?

[duianto]

The evil package adds an minibuffer-exit-hook, when the evil-ex-search-start-session function is called.

(add-hook 'minibuffer-exit-hook #'evil-ex-search-stop-session)

source: https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil/blob/427cf5faa57e8794ac93f594dc3d1972e687a25a/evil-search.el#L873

I don't know what/if Spacemacs does something to negate the minibuffer-exit-hook.

[carloscheddar]

I've been having this issue for months and could never find out how I triggered it. I always restarted to fix it but it's good to know that I can exit the mini buffer instead.

[CeleritasCelery]

could we just add that hook back?

[codygman]

I've also been running into this recently using develop, emacs 27, and darwin a lot when having to CTRL-G CTRL-G searches in large files, but never could figure out reproduction steps. It's possible i could have changed focus and inadvertently followed these reproduction steps. I recently disabled bidi-reordering though and come to think of it i didn't encounter this issue before disabling it. Can anyone see if bidi reordering matters here? I'll also test tomorrow.

…

On Mar 8, 2018 11:33 AM, "Troy Hinckley" ***@***.***> wrote: could we just add that hook back? — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#10410 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AANyN6xDLm40yTAOtf4SBRc04HcGCmAVks5tcWttgaJpZM4SXl_P> .

[NightMachinery]

@codygman I have never heard of bidi-reordering and so I shouldn't have disabled it in my setup.

[NightMachinery]

I have found a workaround! Just set the evil-search-module to its default, 'isearch'. This might be a bug in evil itself, not in Spacemacs. @duianto Can you check if the bug exists with just evil loaded?

[duianto]

Changing the evil-search-module to isearch doesn't change anything for me.

In Spacemacs, the / search prompt remains in the minibuffer and d still deletes the current line.

With just Emacs and evil (as described in comment: #10410 (comment)), the / search prompt cancels, when a window is selected.

[NightMachinery]

@duianto That's strange! My Emacs behaves just as #10410 (comment) when I have the module set to 'isearch', and when I change it to evil's internal search, the bug reappears for me.

[NightMachinery]

@codygman @carloscheddar @CeleritasCelery Can you check this variable? #10410 (comment)

[davidpasztor]

I also have this issue, but can't find where I should set the evil-search-module. @NightMachinary could you please explain where this should be set?

[NightMachinery]

@davidpasztor Do M-x customize like this:

Or put (setq evil-search-module 'isearch) in your user-config.

[NightMachinery]

@davidpasztor Please provide feedback, if this works, we'll need to put it in Spacemacs itself.

[davidpasztor]

@NightMachinary thanks for your help, I put that in my user-config, then reload my spacemacs, but the issue still persists :(

[NightMachinery]

@davidpasztor Try using customize? I personally haven't tried `setq`. Some things only work with customize.

[davidpasztor]

@NightMachinary sadly customize didn't help either

[larebsyed]

I found a temporary fix by adding these line in my .spacemacs file

  (defun kill-minibuffer ()
    (interactive)
    (when (windowp (active-minibuffer-window))
      (evil-ex-search-exit)))

  (add-hook 'mouse-leave-buffer-hook #'kill-minibuffer)

edited by @syl20bnr to format the code snippet correctly

[syl20bnr]

@larebsyed I edited your post to better format the code snippet.

[dijonkitchen]

Any updates on this? Should the temporary fix be incorporated in the latest branch?

[hjorvari]

This is the most annoying thing ever but TIL you can just do <spc> <spc> exit-minibuffer and it will fix it. Should be in the FAQ imo.

[duianto]

#10410 (comment) ☝️

I have found a workaround! Just set the evil-search-module to its default, 'isearch'. This might be a bug in evil itself, not in Spacemacs.

@NightMachinary You seem to be right.

The issue also occurs without Spacemacs (just Emacs and https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil), when:

(setq evil-search-module 'evil-search)

is defined in init.el before:

(require 'evil)
(evil-mode 1)

In Spacemacs

I retested adding:

(setq evil-search-module 'evil-search)

to either the user-init or user-config sections, but the issue still occurs.

However the issue stops happening when: evil-search-module
is set to isearch with: M-x customize

(As you said in a later comment: #10410 (comment) ☝️)

[NightMachinery]

@duianto What is very weird is that I regularly lose my customized settings. I don’t know exactly how it happens, but every once in a while I notice something I had customized has reset. That’s why I’ve been avoiding customizing settings and use direct setq commands.

[duianto]

There's an issue about customizations here:
spacemacs forgets all customizations made through customize / org-customize #10504

It's marked as fixed in develop, and at least for me, bmags reproduction steps: #10504 (comment)
of adding a custom fill-column setting, remains after restarting Emacs and installing a package.

Maybe there's some side case that the fix didn't catch. You could post a comment there that your still losing customizations.

[NightMachinery]

@duianto I don't know when exactly was the last time I lost a customization. I noticed this one because it causes an annoying bug when using the mouse with evil search, but it's possible that the lost was for before the bug got fixed. I'll be sure to comment if I notice a new customization resetting though.

[allentiak]

@NightMachinary Could you try reproducing this on current develop? (So we can verify this bug is still relevant.)

[NightMachinery]

@allentiak I have switched to Doom, and have workarounds in my Spacemacs config regardless. Feel free to close the issue, someone will just comment if the issue still persists.

[allentiak]

@duianto It seems this one can be safely closed :-)

[duianto]

Instead of closing this, let's fix it 😄

A PR has been opened upstream:
Exit search prompt on mouse leave minibuffer emacs-evil/evil#1330

[allentiak]

Cool!
(In any case, fixing it would also close it ;-)

[nwilleyltk]

I can confirm that the issue still exists for me on the develop branch. The mini-buffer will stick with the search term, and while it is stuck, typing c or d will delete the entire line. Once the mini-buffer is closed using exit-minibuffer, it behaves normally.

[mabdh]

I can confirm that the issue still exists for me on the develop branch. The mini-buffer will stick with the search term, and while it is stuck, typing c or d will delete the entire line. Once the mini-buffer is closed using exit-minibuffer, it behaves normally.

This works for me. Thanks!

[lebensterben]

@duianto
Since there's no update from upstream, we should can use advice-add to add a :after advice to for now.

[duianto]

A PR with a possible fix has been opened:
Fix evil search prompt on mouse leave #15002

[lebensterben]

Just merged the fix and updating the label to 'Fixed in develop' now.

[lebensterben]

closing since it's fixed in upstream.