Re: Getting "Searching for program: permission denied, nil"

Sarir Khamsi <sarir.khamsi <at> raytheon.com> writes:

> 
> I'm getting a strange message that I can't seem to debug easily and was
> wondering of someone else has seen this or knows how to approach
> it. This does not happen when I run "emacs -Q" so I know it's my
> setup...I just don't know where.
> 
> When I open a Java or Python file with Emacs 24.3.1 on Windows 7, I get
> the message
> 
>   Searching for program: permission denied, nil
> 
> in the mini-buffer and the *Messages* buffer. After turning on
> debug-on-error, opening the Java file gives that message but does not
> give a backtrace, but opening a Python file (with dired or C-x C-f)
> gives:
> 
>   Debugger entered--Lisp error: (file-error "Searching for program"
"permission denied" "nil")
>     start-process("Python Internal [b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]"
#<buffer  *Python Internal
> [b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]*> "nil" "-i")
>     apply(start-process "Python Internal
[b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]" #<buffer  *Python
> Internal [b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]*> "nil" "-i")
>     start-file-process("Python Internal
[b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]" #<buffer  *Python
> Internal [b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]*> "nil" "-i")
>     apply(start-file-process "Python Internal
[b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]" #<buffer  *Python
> Internal [b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]*> "nil" "-i")
>     comint-exec-1("Python Internal [b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]"
#<buffer  *Python Internal
> [b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]*> "nil" ("-i"))
>     comint-exec(#<buffer  *Python Internal
[b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]*> "Python Internal
> [b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]" "nil" nil ("-i"))
>     make-comint-in-buffer("Python Internal
[b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]" " *Python Internal
> [b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]*" "nil" nil "-i")
>     apply(make-comint-in-buffer "Python Internal
[b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]" " *Python
> Internal [b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]*" "nil" nil "-i")
>     python-shell-make-comint("nil -i" "Python Internal
[b729f4feaab20022667537407a0cb5af]" nil t)
>     run-python-internal()
>     python-shell-internal-get-or-create-process()
>     python-shell-internal-send-string("import sys;print
('\\n'.join(sys.path))")
>     semantic-python-get-system-include-path()
>     (progn (semantic-python-get-system-include-path))
>     (if (and (featurep (quote python)) (not noninteractive)) (progn
(semantic-python-get-system-include-path)))
>     (when (and (featurep (quote python)) (not noninteractive))
(semantic-python-get-system-include-path))
>     eval((when (and (featurep (quote python)) (not noninteractive))
(semantic-python-get-system-include-path)))
>     custom-initialize-reset(semantic-python-dependency-system-include-path
(when (and (featurep
> (quote python)) (not noninteractive))
(semantic-python-get-system-include-path)))
>     custom-declare-variable(semantic-python-dependency-system-include-path
(when (and (featurep
> (quote python)) (not noninteractive))
(semantic-python-get-system-include-path)) "The system
> include path used by Python language." :group python :group semantic :type
(repeat (directory :tag
> "Directory")) :set #[(sym val) "\303	\"\210
\304\305\nBC\306\307#\210\310\311\307\"\210\n\210)\312\313!\205\"
> 
> If I try to open the file again, it seems to work. Any ideas what this
> mystery program is? Thanks in advance.
> 
> Sarir
> 

This is because of semantic. When it opens up a Python file it tries to
search for your python binary. It cannot locate it so it throws an
non-useful permission denied error. Either supply your python binary with:

(setq python-shell-interpreter "/path/to/python")

or disable Semantic (perhaps just for Python mode)