Refreshing after a query fails

[jwiegley]

OS/platform

macOS

Emacs version and provenance

29.4 macport build via Nix

Emacs command

emacs

Org version and provenance

9.7.13, pulled from Org releases and built with Nix

org-ql package version and provenance

0.9-pre, from nixpkgs

Actions taken

Use this function to perform a query, which works:

(defun org-config-show-filetagged-tasks (tag)
  "Report items pending review after one second."
  (interactive "sTag: ")
  (org-ql-search (org-agenda-files)
    '(and (todo)
          (save-excursion
            (goto-char (point-min))
            (re-search-forward (concat "#\\+filetags:.*:" tag ":") 4096 t)))
    :sort '(scheduled todo)))

Then, hit g to refresh the results buffer.

Observed results

I get this error:

byte-compile-log-warning: Invalid Org QL query: "Invalid Org QL query: \"reference to free variable ‘tag’\", :warning", :error

Expected results

I expected it to refresh the buffer.

Backtrace

Interestingly enough, `debug-on-error` does not catch this error.

Etc.

No response

[alphapapa]

Hi John,

I think this is because the query sexp is internally byte-compiled in a lambda, but not as a closure, so it doesn't capture the value of tag in the outer function. I think to fix it you just need to backquote the query sexp and unquote that variable, so its value gets inlined.

[jwiegley]

ah! that makes so much sense

[alphapapa]

Also, I think you could test for that filetag in a way that would be a bit more robust and likely friendly to caching...let me see...

[jwiegley]

Yes, that fixed it, thank you so much.

[alphapapa]

This seems to work:

(org-ql--value-at
 (point-min) (lambda ()
               (org-entry-get nil "filetags" t)))

org-ql--value-at caches per buffer, as long as the buffer isn't modified. And org-entry-get gets the entry from a document-level :PROPERTIES: drawer. But it does not get it from the #+filetags: header, so you would need to switch from #+filetags: to

:PROPERTIES:
:filetags: 
:END:

But there should also be a function that works with the #+ headers...

[alphapapa]

The keywords are in the variable org-options-keywords, but the only function I can find is in org-export, which you might not want to use. Anyway, hope this helps somehow.

[jwiegley]

I definitely don't want to define these properties at the entry level, but only in the #+filetags...

[alphapapa]

I definitely don't want to define these properties at the entry level, but only in the #+filetags...

I mean in a document-level properties drawer, not within an entry. Those are still relatively new in Org, so maybe you didn't notice the feature yet. :) (Though I'm only guessing that setting that property in the document-level drawer has the same effect...)

[jwiegley]

Ah, I see. Actually, I currently use BOTH file properties (for file-level ID), and #+filetags, etc. It's nice in a ways because the title and filetags aren't hidden from view due to their being in a property drawer...