epatch-buffer broken in CVS

[Aaron S. Hawley]

Symptoms:

Epatch-buffer in combination with VC-mode doesn't work in the Emacs
from CVS (installed with Trent's Debian package).  The problem doesn't
happen in my installation of GNU Emacs 21.

Here's a small scenario that causes the error of "Wrong type argument:
stringp, nil":

 * Start a new file in Emacs,
 * type something in it,
 * put it under version conrol with C-x v v,
 * check it out for editing with C-x v v,
 * type something else in it,
 * get the diff from the last version with C-x v =,
 * load the original in another buffer with `C-x v ~ 1.1 RET'
 * and run epatch-buffer in this buffer and use *vc-diff* as the patch
   buffer and.

I've edited the lossage below and added more to the "Recent messages"
list below to provide more information.

I'm not aware of this as a known problem, so I hope it helps.
/a

In GNU Emacs 22.0.50.1 (i386-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2005-08-08 on malambruno, modified by Debian
X server distributor `The XFree86 Project, Inc', version 11.0.40300001
configured using `configure '--build' 'i386-linux' '--host' 'i386-linux' 
'--prefix=/usr' '--sharedstatedir=/var/lib' '--libexecdir=/usr/lib' 
'--localstatedir=/var' '--infodir=/usr/share/info' '--mandir=/usr/share/man' 
'--with-pop=yes' '--with-gif' 
'--enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs-snapshot:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/22.0.50/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/22.0.50/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/22.0.50/leim'
 '--with-x=yes' '--with-x-toolkit=athena' '--with-toolkit-scroll-bars' 
'CFLAGS=-DDEBIAN -g -O2' 'build_alias=i386-linux' 'host_alias=i386-linux''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: nil
  locale-coding-system: nil
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Text

Minor modes in effect:
  tool-bar-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  unify-8859-on-encoding-mode: t
  utf-translate-cjk-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  next-error-follow-minor-mode:  Fol

Recent input:
C-x C-f m y - f i l e . t x t <return>
E n t e r SPC s o m e SPC t e x t . <return>
C-x v v y C-x v v
E n t e r SPC s o m e SPC m o r e SPC t e x t . <return>
C-x v = y C-x o M-x e p a t <tab> - b u <tab> <return> y <return>
<return> M-x r e p o r t - e m SPC b SPC <return>

Recent messages:
For information about the GNU Project and its goals, type C-h C-p.
Making completion list...
(New file)
Loading vc...done
Buffer my-file.txt modified; save it? (y or n) 
Wrote /home/ashawley/my-file.txt
Loading log-edit...
Loading easymenu...done
Loading log-edit...done
Mark set
Press C-c C-c when you are done editing.
Registering /home/ashawley/my-file.txt... done
Checking out /home/ashawley/my-file.txt...done
Buffer my-file.txt modified; save it? (y or n) 
Wrote /home/ashawley/my-file.txt
next-history-element: Beginning of history; no preceding item
Loading ediff...done
Is the patch already in a buffer? (y or n) 
Wrong type argument: stringp, nil
Loading emacsbug...done