Re: tramp (2.1.2); confusing failure mode when remote host does not give ssh prompt

[Michael Albinus]

Alan Donovan <address@hidden> writes:

Hi,

> When evaluating the following expression:
>
>      (tramp-handle-file-exists-p "/foo.yoyodyne.com:/bar.cc")
>
> using the "ssh" access method, where "foo" is a host that responds to
> pings, and accepts incoming ssh connections, but does not respond with
> a "Password:" prompt in a timely manner, then the evaluation fails
> with the following stack trace:
>
> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument stringp nil)
>   format(nil "/foo.java")
>   (tramp-send-command-and-check multi-method method user host (format
>     (tramp-get-file-exists-command multi-method method user host)
>     (tramp-shell-quote-argument path)))

Are you sure we're speaking about Tramp 2.1.2? According to the
ChangeLog, multi-method has been removed since Tramp 2.1.1.

> Ideally in such cases the code should signal some kind of timeout
> error such as "host 'foo' not responding to ssh connection".

More recent Tramp versions (like 2.1.7) show the contents of the
connection buffer in case of an error. This is intended to give more
information about the problem.

Could you, please, check whether this is sufficient for your needs?

> cheers
> alan

Best regards, Michael.