Org capture and malfunction timeout

Question

I'm sure some of you may have gathered (due to my recent flurry of questions) that I am setting up org-mode on emacs and going through Brent Hansen, an impressive organization to set up . He is a fanatic fanatic, and I like a lot of everything he does to keep track of the time spent on projects.

I (I think) did not confuse in setting things up, but whenever I try to synchronize our tasks, I get an error with a lot of gibberish (see below). I tried to find out if there are any patterns, how the error occurs, but I can not detect them. They seem to happen quite often, but not all the time, which makes debugging them even more painful.

Typically, when I exit a task (but when I find a clock too), I get a message like this

save-excursion: Wrong number of arguments: #[(drawer pos) "rÂ! Ã!pq~bÄÅ ÆQÇ\"$ÈÉ!+" [pos drawer markerp marker-buffer org-in-regexp "^[ ]*:" ":[ ]* [ ]*:END:[ ]* ?" 2 replace-match ""] 4 ("/Users/krishnan/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20140210/org.elc" . 450779)], 1 [az..]:Set [SPC]:clear [2 times] 

As always, I am happy to answer questions that may help locate the source of the error. I could not distinguish whether it included the standard practice of all my .emacs, etc., but I am happy to publish the following information as necessary.

Thank you very much in advance!

edit 1: Following @ iqbal-ansari, I made Mx toggle-debug-on-error , which produces the following gunk:

 Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-number-of-arguments #[(drawer pos) "r\302!\203 \303!\202pq\210\212\214~\210b\210\304\305 \306Q\307\"\205$\310\311!+\207" [pos drawer markerp marker-buffer org-in-regexp "^[ ]*:" ":[ ]* [ ]*:END:[ ]* ?" 2 replace-match ""] 4 ("/Users/krishnan/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20140210/org.elc" . 450779)] 1) org-remove-empty-drawer-at(307) (save-excursion (beginning-of-line 0) (org-remove-empty-drawer-at (point))) bh/remove-empty-drawer-on-clock-out() #[(f) " \207" [f] 1](bh/remove-empty-drawer-on-clock-out) mapc(#[(f) " \207" [f] 1] (org-clock-remove-empty-clock-drawer bh/remove-empty-drawer-on-clock-out bh/clock-out-maybe)) byte-code("\306 \204\307\310\" \311 \210\203\312\313\314\"\210\202\315\316!\210\f\2035\317\320r\321 !q\ 210@ )\322\314\323%\2027A\324B!\322\211\211\211\211\211CDEFGHIAIJ\212\325 q\210\214~\210 b\210\326\327!\210\330\331KP!\203~\332\327!L\232\203~\332\333!H\202\216\203\212\312\313\322\"\210\202\216\334\335!\210\336\225b\210`\337 |\210\340c\210\341M\206\242I\342\343#G\344\345\346\347G!\"!\344\345\346\347H!\"!ZF\350F\351\245!EFE\351_ZF\350F\352\245!DF\211\352_ZF\353\354\355ED#\261\210N\205\364ED\\\336U\211C\203\326\327!\210`\337 |\210\330\356!\203d`TV\203\357\327!\210 \322\211\223\210O\322\211\223\210P\2033\360\361\322\211\211\211\362\363\314!\364Q&\210Q\ 203@ \365Q!\210\322QR\203M\365R!\210\322R\307\310\" A\203\234\212\366\314!\210\314\322ST\367A!\203\205\330U!\210A\332\333!!\211V\203\201\370V!\210)\202\233A\203\233\330W\331A\371R!\204\233\370A!\210+\311 \210\372\373\374E\352_D\\!\375QGC\203\267\376\202\270\377#\210XEYZ\232\203\335[\201]=\203\335S\203\335\307\201^E\"E\201_\201`E\"\210)\306 ?\205\362\322\211\\.\n\207" [global-mode-string org-frame-title-format-backup frame-title-format fail-quietly switch-to-state org-clock-marker org-clocking-p delq org-mode-line-string force-mode-line-update throw exit t user-error "No active clock" completing-read "Switch to state: " marker-buffer nil "DONE" org-current-time org-clocking-buffer beginning-of-line 1 looking-at "[ ]*" match-string 2 error "Clock start time is gone" 0 point-at-eol "--" org-insert-time-stamp with-hm inactive org-float-time apply encode-time org-parse-time-string floor 3600 60 " => " format "%2d:%02d" "\n" delete-char org-add-log-setup clock-out ...] 10) org-clock-out() org-clock-out-if-current() run-hooks(org-after-todo-state-change-hook) byte-code("\306\307!\210\310\311P!\203\312 \210\307\310\n!\203\313\225Sb\210\310\314\315Q!\204)\310\316!\210\304 \317 \304 @\320\216\321\322\323\307\211$*ABBCCDDE\313\232\203X\322E\324\202ZFF\325\326!G\313\224H\327G!I\330IJ\"\ 211KA@L \331K8M\332K8NG\206\212\333O\307PGQ\235\211RAST\203\303E\334\232\203\255U\335=\204\276E\204\303U\203\303U\335=\204\303\336 \202E\337\232\203\341U\203\324T\204\341\340\341\342\343Q\"\322\307$\202E\344=\203\376G\203\370S\ 205S@ \ 202Q@ \202E\345=\203/RQ\232?\205G\203\"\346QGSG\347#Q8\202Q#\350# !@ )\202U\307=\203DE\351\232\203D\322\211E\206E\203\310E\333\232\203T\322\202E\352=\203_\322\202E\353=\203qM\ 206V@ \202E\354=\203\210IW\ 235A@ \ 206W@ \202E\355=\203\246\356W!WIW\ 235A@ \206\ 242W@ )\202EQ\ 235@ \206E;\203\275\357\360E\"\202\361E!SQ8\202R\204\330I\ 206Q@ \202GN\232\203\344\322\202S\204\355\322\202L\362>\203XY=\ 203S@ \202SG\313V\205M\ 206V@ \ 202S@Z \363\364ZO#\206&Z\211Z\2034\365Z\365Q\2025\365[\366\367\370G\371Z\372 \257\\\322\211]^=\203\230GV\235?_\212\304 @\373\216\212\214~\210\374\375\\\"-\204\230\376\377!\203\201\357\201jGZ`$\210\202\230\201k\201jGZ`$\210\201l\201m\322\"\210\201n\f!\210\201o[\307\211#\210\201pH!\204\276\201k\201q\201r[!\"\210I\204\342\327Z!I\330IJ\"\ 211KA@L \331K8M\332K8NE\201s>\203\201k\201t\346aG\201u\330Za\"a>G#aG\201v\201w\330Za\"\365#$\210ZV\235?_ZV\235\205,GV\235?^A\203:\201xA!\210D\204DB\203\357F\307=\204\357E\201y>\204\357\330ZD\" A@ \206g\347\330GD\"8\211]\324=\203{F\324=\203{\201z]Z\204\205b\203\232Z\203\244Zc\235\203\244Gc\235\204\244\201{\322\211\201|#\210^\203\324B\203\324\201{\201|\201} \"\210]\204\324B\324=\203\324\201~\353ZG\201\324%\210Z\203\357]\203\357\201~\201\200ZG\201]%\210\201\201Z!\210d\203e\204\201\202\322\307\"\210f\203\201\203 \210\201\204\201\205!\210E\203,ZV\235\204,\327Z!I\201\206\317 \201\207 \201\210I$\210^\203a\201\211\201g!\203Z\304 @\201\212\216\201\213 g*\201\214Z!\210\201\215 \203\235n\204\235\212\201\216\326!\210\310h!)\203\235`\347\211\225\206\204\326\225\\W\203\235\347\225\206\220\326\225b\210\310\365!\203\235\201\217 \210i\203\256\212\201\220\201i\\\"\210) \205\264\312 .\207" [org-comment-string commentp org-outline-regexp org-todo-regexp match-data startpos org-back-to-heading t looking-at "^\\*+ " org-toggle-comment 0 " +" "\\( +\\|[ ]*$\\)" "\\(?: *\\|[ ]*$\\)" point-at-bol ((byte-code "\301\302\"\207" [save-match-data-internal set-match-data evaporate] 3)) org-entry-get nil "LOGGING" note match-string 1 org-get-todo-sequence-head assoc 3 4 "" (4) prefix org-fast-todo-selection (4) org-icompleting-read "State: " mapcar list right left - 2 last (4) none done nextset previousset reverse user-error "State `%s' not valid in this file" prefix-numeric-value ...] 10) org-todo(nil) call-interactively(org-todo) org-agenda-todo(nil) call-interactively(org-agenda-todo nil nil) 

Answer 1

The problem is caused by the (org-remove-empty-drawer-at (point)) in the bh/remove-empty-drawer-on-clock-out function. If you read the documentation for the function org-remove-empty-drawer-at (do Ch f org-remove-empty-drawer-at RET , it says that the function accepts two arguments drawer and point , and the function bh/remove-empty-drawer-on-clock-out passes only one argument (period), which causes an error message. It seems that the code was written for an older version of org-mode.

This is a workaround, delete the line

 (add-hook 'org-clock-out-hook 'bh/remove-empty-drawer-on-clock-out 'append) 

from the initialization file (and restart emacs). This will save you from a mistake.

UPDATE

I got (I think) a permanent solution to the problem. The first argument to the org-remove-empty-drawer-at function is the name of the deletion box, from Brent Hansen setup it seems like he wants to delete the empty LOGBOOK mailboxes, in this case, change the bh/remove-empty-drawer-on-clock-out as follows

 (defun bh/remove-empty-drawer-on-clock-out () (interactive) (save-excursion (beginning-of-line 0) (org-remove-empty-drawer-at "LOGBOOK" (point)))) 

Note that the "LOGBOOK" argument has been added to the function call org-remove-empty-drawer-at . Also now you do not need to delete the line

 (add-hook 'org-clock-out-hook 'bh/remove-empty-drawer-on-clock-out 'append) 

from the initialization file.

Answer 2

Faced this problem after upgrading to Org-mode version 8.3.3 (8.3.3-51-g30bcff-elpa) . Before the upgrade, he was already working on my Emacs 24.4 (Linux OS built from sources), thanks to a response from user 2053036.

It seems that an additional parameter is no longer needed in this version. My working initialization file now looks like this:

 (defun bh/remove-empty-drawer-on-clock-out () (interactive) (save-excursion (beginning-of-line 0) (org-remove-empty-drawer-at (point)))) (add-hook 'org-clock-out-hook 'bh/remove-empty-drawer-on-clock-out 'append)