[cl-debian] Bug#443520: Subject: clisp: Error on startup "invalid byte #xC3 in CHARSET:ASCII conversion"

[Peter Van Eynde]

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Hello Andreas,

Andreas Krüger wrote:
> I cannot run clisp without getting this error, see below.
> (I'm a Lisp beginner.)

I think I know what causes your problem: it is caused by having a file
in your home directory with a name that cannot be encoded with the
locale you're trying to use. For example:

pvaneynd at sharrow:~ :( $ ls | grep -v '^[-a-zA-Z0-9.]'
pvaneynd at sharrow:~ :( $ LANG=C clisp
...
[1]> (quit)
Bye.
pvaneynd at sharrow:~ :) $ touch 'élève'
pvaneynd at sharrow:~ :) $ LANG=C clisp
...
*** - invalid byte #xC3 in CHARSET:ASCII conversion
The following restarts are available:
ABORT          :R1      ABORT
ABORT          :R2      ABORT
ABORT          :R3      ABORT
ABORT          :R4      ABORT
ABORT          :R5      ABORT
Break 1 [6]>

#xC3 is strange because the characters we used are é and è or E9 and E8,
but in UTF8 it is encoded as #C3 #xA9 (see
http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/00e9/index.htm).

clisp stumbles across this file while searching for its .clisprc.lisp
file in the home directory, and the error is normal as the filename it
sees it not valid in the locale you've chosen.

It is unclear how to fix this, as it is normal that an error should be
displayed  an easy fix it to use a locale that uses UTF8:

LANG=en_GB.utf8 clisp

or prevent clisp from searching for he rc file:

LANG=C clisp -norc

Groetjes, Peter

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