Evaluate (frame-parameter nil 'client) first after starting emacs with
the -Q option and then with your customizations and tell us what you
get. In a non-client session this parameter should be always nil.
Hello,
After bisecting my config, turns out that this issue happens only when I restore my session using desktop. Copying Eli as he can throw in some light on cross-compatibility of a desktop.el saved .desktop file between emacs (non-daemon) and emacsclient (daemon) sessions.
I cannot share my whole .desktop file for obvious reasons, but I see this in my .desktop file, which seems to be the culprit:
(setq desktop-saved-frameset [frameset 1 (23033 51555 32954 566000) (desktop . "208") "
kmodi@foo.company.com" nil nil ((((minibuffer . t) (undecorated) (override-redirect) (font-backend xft x) (font . "-unknown-PragmataPro-normal-normal-normal-*-18-*-*-*-*-0-iso10646-1") (font-parameter . "-unknown-PragmataPro-normal-normal-normal-*-18-*-*-*-*-0-iso10646-1") (border-width . 0) (internal-border-width . 0) (right-divider-width . 1) (bottom-divider-width . 0) (vertical-scroll-bars) (horizontal-scroll-bars) (foreground-color . "#f7f7f7") (background-color . "#282828") (mouse-color . "black") (border-color . "black") (screen-gamma) (line-spacing) (left-fringe . 8) (right-fringe . 8) (no-special-glyphs) (scroll-bar-foreground) (scroll-bar-background) (menu-bar-lines . 0) (tool-bar-lines . 0) (title) (wait-for-wm . t) (tool-bar-position . top) (inhibit-double-buffering) (icon-type . t) (auto-raise) (auto-lower) (cursor-type . box) (scroll-bar-width . 0) (scroll-bar-height . 0) (alpha) (no-focus-on-map) (no-accept-focus) (fullscreen) (visibility . t) (skip-taskbar) (z-group) (display-type . color) (background-mode . dark) (cursor-color . "white") (sticky) (client . "Unprintable entity") (tty-type . "xterm-24bits") (tty . "/dev/pts/10") (display . ":1.0") (frameset--id . "D44A-14E2-2416-0AA9") (frameset--mini t . t) (modeline . t) (unsplittable) (icon-name) (explicit-name) (fullscreen-restore) (height . 67) (width . 282) (left . 2560) (top . 0)) ((min-height . 4) (min-width . 10) (min-height-ignore . 2) (min-width-ignore . 4) (min-height-safe . 1) (min-width-safe . 2) (min-pixel-height . 80) (min-pixel-width . 90) (min-pixel-height-ignore . 40) (min-pixel-width-ignore . 36) (min-pixel-height-safe . 20) (min-pixel-width-safe . 18)) leaf (pixel-width . 2554) (pixel-height . 1320) (total-width . 284) (total-height . 66) (normal-height . 1.0) (normal-width . 1.0) (buffer "setup-desktop.el" (selected . t) (hscroll . 0) (fringes 8 8 nil) (margins nil) (scroll-bars nil 0 t nil 0 t) (vscroll . 0) (dedicated) (point . 6143) (start . 4847))))])
Note the "(client . "Unprintable entity")" in there.
PS: I have removed the (environment . ..) form from that (setq desktop-saved-frameset ..) for privary reasons and also it just added a lot of noise. Also I don't believe that has anything to do with this issue.
I use emacsclient 99.99% percent of times. So my .desktop file is saves from those sessions. When I started emacs (non-daemon), it did desktop-read of that .desktop file saved from the last emacsclient session.
So it looks like emacsclient shouldn't save stuff to the .desktop file (like the 'client parameter) that would cause a future non-daemon emacs session to think that it's running in daemon mode.
So the root cause analysis would be to figure out what causes the client parameter to be set to "Unprintable entity". Where is that client parameter derived from? How can I help debug this further?
As a side, wouldn't doing (daemonp) check instead of (frame-parameter nil 'client) work?