Do M-x set-variable debug-on-error t and make it happen, then look at the stack
trace. It'll probably be obvious from there. It's not directly related to
your cygwin config, it's something about font-lock mode. I don't have a
font-lock-defaults-alist, I have font-lock-defaults. You may have an
out-of-date elisp package somewhere.
-- Gary
----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sivaram Neelakantan" <nsivaram....@gmail.com>
> To: help-emacs-windows@gnu.org
> Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 1:13:20 PM
> Subject: [h-e-w] Unable to launch cygwin bash (M-x shell) in win 7 64 bit
>
> I've run into this problem and I don't know where to start. I got a
> new laptop and went about installing all the usual bits of software,
> Emacs and Cygwin. Things mostly work as advertised....however when I
> do M-x shell, I get
>
> let: Symbol's value as variable is void: font-lock-defaults-alist
> Error in post-command-hook (global-font-lock-mode-check-buffers):
> (void-variable font-lock-defaults-alist)
>
> and that's it. I haven't changed anything that I had on my old XP
> laptop. The weird thing is, M-! command to call different cygwin
> commands work; the moment I launch the shell within Emacs I get the
> above errors.
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> and my cygwin configuration in my .Emacs is
>
> (setq exec-path (cons "C:/gnu/bin/" exec-path))
> (setq exec-path (cons "C:/cygwin/usr/bin" (cons "C:/cygwin/bin"
> exec-path)))
> (setq exec-path (cons "C:/MiKTeX2.9/miktex/bin" exec-path))
> (setenv "PATH" (concat
> "C:\\MiKTeX2.9\\miktex\\bin;C:\\cygwin\\bin;C:\\cygwin\\usr\\bin;C:\\gnu\\bin\\;"
> (getenv "PATH")))
>
> ;; NT-emacs assumes a Windows command shell, which you change
> ;; here.
> ;;
> (setq process-coding-system-alist '(("bash" . undecided-unix)))
> (setq w32-quote-process-args ?\")
> (setq shell-file-name "/usr/bin/bash")
> ;;(setq shell-file-name "C:/cygwin/usr/bin/bash")
> (setenv "SHELL" shell-file-name)
> (setq explicit-shell-file-name shell-file-name)
> ;; This removes unsightly ^M characters that would otherwise
> ;; appear in the output.
> ;;
> (add-hook 'comint-output-filter-functions
> 'comint-strip-ctrl-m)
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
> sivaram
> --
>
>
>
--
Gary Oberbrunner
