Re: eval-after-load causes void-variable error

[Dmitry Gutov]

Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu> writes:

> In article <bp8ip6vs6xk.fsf@usca1uw-JZWWPM1.sanmateo.corp.akamai.com>,
>  Sean McAfee <eefacm@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> For a long time I had this in my .emacs file:
>> 
>> (require 'ffap)
>> (add-to-list 'ffap-alist (cons +my-ffap-regexp+ #'my-ffap-hook))
>> 
>> I recently decided to optimize it a bit and changed it to:
>> 
>> (eval-after-load 'ffap
>>   '(add-to-list 'ffap-alist (cons +my-ffap-regexp+ #'my-ffap-hook)))
>> 
>> Now, however, as soon as the ffap command is activated, I get an error:
>> 
>> Lisp error: (void-variable ffap-alist)
>> 
>> Somehow, using eval-after-load is causing the variable ffap-alist to be
>> unbound, or not bound in the first place.  Does anyone have any idea
>> what's going on?
>
> When you use a feature name rather than a filename (i.e. a symbol rather 
> than a string) in eval-after-load, it evals as soon as the feature is 
> provided, not after the file is loaded. ffap.el contains
>
> (provide 'ffap)
>
> at the beginning of the file

Does it? If we're talking about ffap.el distributed with Emacs, I only
see the `provide' from at the end of the file. And according to
`vc-annotate', it's been there for a few years now.