https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/55125/newsticker-failure-wrong-type-argument-listp/55126

Suddenly newsticker is failing to load. I get the following stack trace on error. I have made no recent upgrades.

Debugger entered–Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument listp \.\.\.)

newsticker–stat-num-items(Bus\ Driver\ Diaries new immortal)

apply(newsticker–stat-num-items Bus\ Driver\ Diaries (new immortal))

newsticker–stat-num-items-for-group(Bus\ Driver\ Diaries new immortal)

newsticker–treeview-tree-get-tag(“Bus Driver Diaries” nil “feeds-4”)

#f(compiled-function (g) #<bytecode 0x2370c3d>)(“Bus Driver Diaries”)

mapcar(#f(compiled-function (g) #<bytecode 0x2370c3d>) (“Sacha Chua” “Good Questions” “Quote of the day” “Tory C Anderson” “Bus Driver Diaries” “Dadacity” “Austen Knows Best” “Every Day Miracles” “Vi Hart” “Brain Pickings” “Inside Clojure” “Reddit Clojure” “Reddit Emacs” “Reddit Postgres” “Reddit Programming Languages”))

newsticker–treeview-tree-expand((tree-widget :args nil :expander newsticker–treeview-tree-expand :tag #(“Feeds” 0 5 (mouse-face highlight help-echo “Feeds” :nt-vfeed nil :nt-feed nil :nt-id “feeds” keymap (keymap (13 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (10 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (mouse-3 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click) (mouse-1 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click)) face newsticker-treeview-face)) :expander-p #f(compiled-function (&rest _) #<bytecode 0x204a4dd>) :leaf-icon newsticker–tree-widget-leaf-icon :nt-group (“Sacha Chua” “Good Questions” “Quote of the day” “Tory C Anderson” “Bus Driver Diaries” “Dadacity” “Austen Knows Best” “Every Day Miracles” “Vi Hart” “Brain Pickings” “Inside Clojure” “Reddit Clojure” “Reddit Emacs” “Reddit Postgres” “Reddit Programming Languages”) :nt-id “feeds” :keep (:nt-id) :open t :node (item :tag #(“Feeds” 0 5 (mouse-face highlight help-echo “Feeds” :nt-vfeed nil :nt-feed nil :nt-id “feeds” keymap (keymap (13 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (10 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (mouse-3 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click) (mouse-1 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click)) face newsticker-treeview-face)))))

widget-apply((tree-widget :args nil :expander newsticker–treeview-tree-expand :tag #(“Feeds” 0 5 (mouse-face highlight help-echo “Feeds” :nt-vfeed nil :nt-feed nil :nt-id “feeds” keymap (keymap (13 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (10 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (mouse-3 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click) (mouse-1 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click)) face newsticker-treeview-face)) :expander-p #f(compiled-function (&rest _) #<bytecode 0x204a4dd>) :leaf-icon newsticker–tree-widget-leaf-icon :nt-group (“Sacha Chua” “Good Questions” “Quote of the day” “Tory C Anderson” “Bus Driver Diaries” “Dadacity” “Austen Knows Best” “Every Day Miracles” “Vi Hart” “Brain Pickings” “Inside Clojure” “Reddit Clojure” “Reddit Emacs” “Reddit Postgres” “Reddit Programming Languages”) :nt-id “feeds” :keep (:nt-id) :open t :node (item :tag #(“Feeds” 0 5 (mouse-face highlight help-echo “Feeds” :nt-vfeed nil :nt-feed nil :nt-id “feeds” keymap (keymap (13 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (10 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (mouse-3 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click) (mouse-1 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click)) face newsticker-treeview-face)))) :expander)

tree-widget-value-create((tree-widget :args nil :expander newsticker–treeview-tree-expand :tag #(“Feeds” 0 5 (mouse-face highlight help-echo “Feeds” :nt-vfeed nil :nt-feed nil :nt-id “feeds” keymap (keymap (13 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (10 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (mouse-3 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click) (mouse-1 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click)) face newsticker-treeview-face)) :expander-p #f(compiled-function (&rest _) #<bytecode 0x204a4dd>) :leaf-icon newsticker–tree-widget-leaf-icon :nt-group (“Sacha Chua” “Good Questions” “Quote of the day” “Tory C Anderson” “Bus Driver Diaries” “Dadacity” “Austen Knows Best” “Every Day Miracles” “Vi Hart” “Brain Pickings” “Inside Clojure” “Reddit Clojure” “Reddit Emacs” “Reddit Postgres” “Reddit Programming Languages”) :nt-id “feeds” :keep (:nt-id) :open t :node (item :tag #(“Feeds” 0 5 (mouse-face highlight help-echo “Feeds” :nt-vfeed nil :nt-feed nil :nt-id “feeds” keymap (keymap (13 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (10 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (mouse-3 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click) (mouse-1 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click)) face newsticker-treeview-face)))))

widget-apply((tree-widget :args nil :expander newsticker–treeview-tree-expand :tag #(“Feeds” 0 5 (mouse-face highlight help-echo “Feeds” :nt-vfeed nil :nt-feed nil :nt-id “feeds” keymap (keymap (13 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (10 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (mouse-3 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click) (mouse-1 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click)) face newsticker-treeview-face)) :expander-p #f(compiled-function (&rest _) #<bytecode 0x204a4dd>) :leaf-icon newsticker–tree-widget-leaf-icon :nt-group (“Sacha Chua” “Good Questions” “Quote of the day” “Tory C Anderson” “Bus Driver Diaries” “Dadacity” “Austen Knows Best” “Every Day Miracles” “Vi Hart” “Brain Pickings” “Inside Clojure” “Reddit Clojure” “Reddit Emacs” “Reddit Postgres” “Reddit Programming Languages”) :nt-id “feeds” :keep (:nt-id) :open t :node (item :tag #(“Feeds” 0 5 (mouse-face highlight help-echo “Feeds” :nt-vfeed nil :nt-feed nil :nt-id “feeds” keymap (keymap (13 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (10 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (mouse-3 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click) (mouse-1 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click)) face newsticker-treeview-face)))) :value-create)

widget-default-create((tree-widget :args nil :expander newsticker–treeview-tree-expand :tag #(“Feeds” 0 5 (mouse-face highlight help-echo “Feeds” :nt-vfeed nil :nt-feed nil :nt-id “feeds” keymap (keymap (13 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (10 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (mouse-3 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click) (mouse-1 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click)) face newsticker-treeview-face)) :expander-p #f(compiled-function (&rest _) #<bytecode 0x204a4dd>) :leaf-icon newsticker–tree-widget-leaf-icon :nt-group (“Sacha Chua” “Good Questions” “Quote of the day” “Tory C Anderson” “Bus Driver Diaries” “Dadacity” “Austen Knows Best” “Every Day Miracles” “Vi Hart” “Brain Pickings” “Inside Clojure” “Reddit Clojure” “Reddit Emacs” “Reddit Postgres” “Reddit Programming Languages”) :nt-id “feeds” :keep (:nt-id) :open t :node (item :tag #(“Feeds” 0 5 (mouse-face highlight help-echo “Feeds” :nt-vfeed nil :nt-feed nil :nt-id “feeds” keymap (keymap (13 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (10 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (mouse-3 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click) (mouse-1 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click)) face newsticker-treeview-face)))))

widget-apply((tree-widget :args nil :expander newsticker–treeview-tree-expand :tag #(“Feeds” 0 5 (mouse-face highlight help-echo “Feeds” :nt-vfeed nil :nt-feed nil :nt-id “feeds” keymap (keymap (13 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (10 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (mouse-3 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click) (mouse-1 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click)) face newsticker-treeview-face)) :expander-p #f(compiled-function (&rest _) #<bytecode 0x204a4dd>) :leaf-icon newsticker–tree-widget-leaf-icon :nt-group (“Sacha Chua” “Good Questions” “Quote of the day” “Tory C Anderson” “Bus Driver Diaries” “Dadacity” “Austen Knows Best” “Every Day Miracles” “Vi Hart” “Brain Pickings” “Inside Clojure” “Reddit Clojure” “Reddit Emacs” “Reddit Postgres” “Reddit Programming Languages”) :nt-id “feeds” :keep (:nt-id) :open t :node (item :tag #(“Feeds” 0 5 (mouse-face highlight help-echo “Feeds” :nt-vfeed nil :nt-feed nil :nt-id “feeds” keymap (keymap (13 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (10 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (mouse-3 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click) (mouse-1 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click)) face newsticker-treeview-face)))) :create)

widget-create(tree-widget :tag #(“Feeds” 0 5 (mouse-face highlight help-echo “Feeds” :nt-vfeed nil :nt-feed nil :nt-id “feeds” keymap (keymap (13 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (10 . newsticker-treeview-tree-do-click) (mouse-3 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click) (mouse-1 . newsticker-treeview-tree-click)) face newsticker-treeview-face)) :expander newsticker–treeview-tree-expand :expander-p #f(compiled-function (&rest _) #<bytecode 0x204a4dd>) :leaf-icon newsticker–tree-widget-leaf-icon :nt-group (“Sacha Chua” “Good Questions” “Quote of the day” “Tory C Anderson” “Bus Driver Diaries” “Dadacity” “Austen Knows Best” “Every Day Miracles” “Vi Hart” “Brain Pickings” “Inside Clojure” “Reddit Clojure” “Reddit Emacs” “Reddit Postgres” “Reddit Programming Languages”) :nt-id “feeds” :keep (:nt-id) :open t)

newsticker–treeview-tree-update()

newsticker–treeview-buffer-init()

newsticker-treeview()

newsticker-show-news()

funcall-interactively(newsticker-show-news)

call-interactively(newsticker-show-news nil nil)

command-execute(newsticker-show-news)

Solution

It turns out that one of the blogspot blogs on my list, which I’d followed for a while previously, had started to require password authentication (and I didn’t know the password). Some result of caching was that it was breaking the whole system. Here was the solution:

1. Remove the offending blog from newsticker-url-list (which I defined via customize, in my custom file).
2. Remove the Newsticker cache folder for me located ~/emacs/emacs.d/newsticker/. I renamed the directory to newsticker_bak so I could recover if necessary.

Now I restarted emacs and everything was happy again.