Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.

Standard Errors

Here is the complete list of the error symbols in standard Emacs, grouped by concept. The list includes each symbol's message (on the error-message property of the symbol) and a cross reference to a description of how the error can occur.

Each error symbol has an error-conditions property that is a list of symbols. Normally this list includes the error symbol itself and the symbol error. Occasionally it includes additional symbols, which are intermediate classifications, narrower than error but broader than a single error symbol. For example, all the errors in accessing files have the condition file-error. If we do not say here that a certain error symbol has additional error conditions, that means it has none.

As a special exception, the error symbol quit does not have the condition error, because quitting is not considered an error.

See section Errors, for an explanation of how errors are generated and handled.

symbol: string; reference.
error: "error"
See section Errors.
quit: "Quit"
See section Quitting.
args-out-of-range: "Args out of range"
See section Sequences, Arrays, and Vectors.
arith-error: "Arithmetic error"
See / and % in section Numbers.
beginning-of-buffer: "Beginning of buffer"
See section Motion.
buffer-read-only: "Buffer is read-only"
See section Read-Only Buffers.
cyclic-function-indirection: "Symbol's chain of function indirections\ contains a loop"
See section Symbol Function Indirection.
end-of-buffer: "End of buffer"
See section Motion.
end-of-file: "End of file during parsing"
Note that this is not a file-error because it pertains to the Lisp reader, not to file I/O. See section Input Functions.
file-already-exists: This is a file-error.
See section Writing to Files.
file-date-error: This is a subcategory of file-error. It occurs when copy-file tries and fails to set the last-modification time of the output file. See section Changing File Names and Attributes.
file-error: This error and its subcategories do not have error-strings, because the error message is constructed from the data items alone when the error condition file-error is present.
See section Files.
file-locked: This is a file-error.
See section File Locks.
file-supersession: This is a file-error.
See section Comparison of Modification Time.
invalid-function: "Invalid function"
See section Classification of List Forms.
invalid-read-syntax: "Invalid read syntax"
See section Input Functions.
invalid-regexp: "Invalid regexp"
See section Regular Expressions.
mark-inactive: "Mark inactive"
See section The Mark.
no-catch: "No catch for tag"
See section Explicit Nonlocal Exits: catch and throw.
scan-error: "Scan error"
This happens when certain syntax-parsing functions find invalid syntax or mismatched parentheses.
See section Moving over Balanced Expressions, and section Parsing Balanced Expressions.
search-failed: "Search failed"
See section Searching and Matching.
setting-constant: "Attempt to set a constant symbol"
The values of the symbols nil and t, and any symbols that start with `:', may not be changed.
See section Variables That Never Change.
undefined-color: "Undefined color"
See section Color Names.
void-function: "Symbol's function definition is void"
See section Accessing Function Cell Contents.
void-variable: "Symbol's value as variable is void"
See section Accessing Variable Values.
wrong-number-of-arguments: "Wrong number of arguments"
See section Classification of List Forms.
wrong-type-argument: "Wrong type argument"
See section Type Predicates.

These kinds of error, which are classified as special cases of arith-error, can occur on certain systems for invalid use of mathematical functions.

domain-error: "Arithmetic domain error"
See section Standard Mathematical Functions.
overflow-error: "Arithmetic overflow error"
See section Standard Mathematical Functions.
range-error: "Arithmetic range error"
See section Standard Mathematical Functions.
singularity-error: "Arithmetic singularity error"
See section Standard Mathematical Functions.
underflow-error: "Arithmetic underflow error"
See section Standard Mathematical Functions.

Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.