RE: Invalid tags table

[Drew Adams]

> I have a tags table (etags format) that works before I load my init.el
> file. After I load it, M-. (find-tag) gives me an error-message:
> 
> visit-tags-table-buffer: File /my/dir/TAGS is not a valid 
> tags table.
> 
> Now I looked through my customisation files and did not find anything
> suspicious. Can somebody give me hint what could be the possible cause
> of this problem? The file must be valid, since it does work. Which
> settings could be responsable for the error-message then?

Here are two approaches.  Since you mention your init file, I recommend starting
with the first one.

1. Recursively bisect your init file (half, quarter, eighth...) until you find
exactly which code leads to the problem.

2. `M-x debug-on-entry visit-tags-table-buffer', then step through the debugger
looking for what goes wrong: what it expects to see in the file vs what it
thinks it really does see.

At this point, you don't know whether the file is bad or not.  But you do say
that in some senses the file works, and you do implicate your init file.  So I'd
say start with #1.

HTH.  Hopefully someone else will be able to give you a more targeted solution.