I wrote: OK, after more digging, I think I've found the problem, and it's a bug in tar-mode. I don't understand why more people aren't encountering this problem, though. In a nutshell: Basically, with compressed tarballs, tar-mode is being called before the tarball is uncompressed. This appears to be caused by `tar-regexp' matching compressed file names; tar-regexp should only match uncompressed file names. Unabridged version: The twisty path is convoluted, but here's what should be happening (this is for crypt.el, but the proposed fix also works for jka-compr.el): * find-file-noselect gets called (of course) as part of the find-file process. * find-file-noselect calls "normal-mode" before running the find-file-hooks: (unless nomodes (normal-mode t) (run-hooks 'find-file-hooks)) * When tar-mode.el is loaded, it overrides the definition of "normal-mode" with it's own definition: tar-normal-mode. Basically, when tar-normal-mode is called, if the current buffer's filename matches a regexp ("tar-regexp") for tar filenames, the buffer is immediately placed into "tar-mode". In other words, "normal-mode" is turned into "tar-mode". ***** This is where the error is occurring ***** The compressed buffer should not be placed into tar-mode at this time. This error is occurring because tar-regexp will match the names of compressed files; tar-regexp should only match the names of uncompressed tar files. * At this point, tar-normal-mode should think that the current buffer is not a tarball, and should call the old definition of normal mode. * The find-file-hooks are then called. Eventually, the buffer gets uncompressed, and the uncompression code calls set-auto-mode, which calls tar-mode and parses the just-uncompressed tarball correctly. It's interesting to note that tar-regexp isn't required for either crypt.el or jka-compr.el to work; for both of these compression modules, the only important thing is that tar-regexp NOT match the compressed file name. In the case of crypt.el, tar-mode is set via set-auto-mode when the crypt-find-file hook is called. In the case of jka-compr.el, tar-mode is also set via set-auto-mode, but from the call to the old normal-mode function. A valid setting for tar-regexp is only required if you load uncompressed tarballs. -- Darryl Okahata darrylo(a)sr.hp.com DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not constitute the support, opinion, or policy of Hewlett-Packard, or of the little green men that have been following him all day.