Re: apply start-process fails because of invalid current directory

[Stefan Monnier]

> From time to time i encounter problems with commands running
> start-process for ex. eimp-start-process. Trace follows:

> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (file-error "Setting current directory"
>   "no such file or directory" "y:/")

That's a common problem: start-process runs an external process and for
that it needs to decide what the "current working directory" of that
process should be.  Elisp says that this should be the directory
specified by `default-directory'.

If your process doesn't use the current directory, then the Elisp code
that runs it should explicitly rebind `default-directory' to some "safe"
choice (e.g. (expand-file-name "~/")) around the call to start-process.


        Stefan