Problem with pyflakes in emacs on Windows

Question

I followed this link here to try and set up emacs for python dev on windows. Although everything seems fine, pyflakes is creating problems and not giving me the syntax checking. Everytime I open a '.py' file, I get the error "Failed to launch syntax check process 'pyflakes' with args 'foo.py': searching for program: No such file or directory pyflakes"

Could anyone please help me with this?

Update:

Here is my .emacs

;; Abhi's  c:\.emacs file


(add-to-list 'load-path "C:/emacs/colors/")
(require 'color-theme)
(eval-after-load "color-theme"
  '(progn
     (color-theme-initialize)
     (color-theme-charcoal-black)))

(set-default-font "-outline-Monaco-normal-r-normal-normal-13-97-96-96-c-*-iso8859-1")

;Mappings to zoom in and out
(defun sacha/increase-font-size ()
  (interactive)
   (set-face-attribute 'default
                      (selected-frame)
                      :height
                      (ceiling (* 1.10
                                  (face-attribute 'default :height)))))
(defun sacha/decrease-font-size ()
  (interactive)
  (set-face-attribute 'default
                      nil
                      :height
                      (floor (* 0.9
                                  (face-attribute 'default :height)))))
(global-set-key (kbd "C-+") 'sacha/increase-font-size)
(global-set-key (kbd "C--") 'sacha/decrease-font-size)

;muse mode mappings
(add-to-list 'load-path "C:/emacs/Muse/muse-latest/lisp/")

(require 'muse-mode)
(require 'muse-latex)
(require 'muse-book)
(require 'muse-html)
(require 'muse-colors)


;To do list mode config
(add-to-list 'load-path "C:/emacs/lisp/") 
(autoload 'todo-list-mode "todo-list-mode") ;load when needed

;a simple function that opens the file,
;and switches to todo-list-mode.
(defun open-todo-list ()
  (interactive)
  (find-file "D:/AbhisLife/Tasks/TODO")
  (todo-list-mode))

;then bind to control-f12 so i can call it with one keystroke
;this works well for me because i also bind calendar to f12
(global-set-key [C-f12] 'open-todo-list)

;Python development
(require 'smart-operator)
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/")
(require 'yasnippet)
(yas/initialize)
(yas/load-directory "~/.emacs.d/snippets/")
(require 'auto-complete)
(global-auto-complete-mode t)
;(require 'init-auto-complete)
(load-library "init_python")

And here is my init_python.el

(autoload 'python-mode "python-mode" "Python Mode." t)
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.py\\'" . python-mode))
(add-to-list 'interpreter-mode-alist '("python" . python-mode))
(require 'python-mode)


(add-hook 'python-mode-hook
      (lambda ()
    (set-variable 'py-indent-offset 4)
    ;(set-variable 'py-smart-indentation nil)
    (set-variable 'indent-tabs-mode nil)
    (define-key py-mode-map (kbd "RET") 'newline-and-indent)
    ;(define-key py-mode-map [tab] 'yas/expand)
    ;(setq yas/after-exit-snippet-hook 'indent-according-to-mode)
    (smart-operator-mode-on)
    ))
;; pymacs
(autoload 'pymacs-apply "pymacs")
(autoload 'pymacs-call "pymacs")
(autoload 'pymacs-eval "pymacs" nil t)
(autoload 'pymacs-exec "pymacs" nil t)
(autoload 'pymacs-load "pymacs" nil t)
;(eval-after-load "pymacs"
;   (add-to-list 'pymacs-load-path "C:/Python26/MyDownloads/Pymacs/"))
(pymacs-load "ropemacs" "rope-")
(setq ropemacs-enable-autoimport t)


;(setq yas/trigger-key (kbd "C-c <kp-multiply>"))



;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;; Auto-completion
;;;  Integrates:
;;;   1) Rope
;;;   2) Yasnippet
;;;   all with AutoComplete.el
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
(defun prefix-list-elements (list prefix)
  (let (value)
    (nreverse
     (dolist (element list value)
      (setq value (cons (format "%s%s" prefix element) value))))))
(defvar ac-source-rope
  '((candidates
     . (lambda ()
     (prefix-list-elements (rope-completions) ac-target))))
  "Source for Rope")
(defun ac-python-find ()
  "Python `ac-find-function'."
  (require 'thingatpt)
  (let ((symbol (car-safe (bounds-of-thing-at-point 'symbol))))
    (if (null symbol)
    (if (string= "." (buffer-substring (- (point) 1) (point)))
        (point)
      nil)
      symbol)))
(defun ac-python-candidate ()
  "Python `ac-candidates-function'"
  (let (candidates)
    (dolist (source ac-sources)
      (if (symbolp source)
      (setq source (symbol-value source)))
      (let* ((ac-limit (or (cdr-safe (assq 'limit source)) ac-limit))
         (requires (cdr-safe (assq 'requires source)))
         cand)
    (if (or (null requires)
        (>= (length ac-target) requires))
        (setq cand
          (delq nil
            (mapcar (lambda (candidate)
                  (propertize candidate 'source source))
                (funcall (cdr (assq 'candidates source)))))))
    (if (and (> ac-limit 1)
         (> (length cand) ac-limit))
        (setcdr (nthcdr (1- ac-limit) cand) nil))
    (setq candidates (append candidates cand))))
    (delete-dups candidates)))
(add-hook 'python-mode-hook
      (lambda ()
         (auto-complete-mode 1)
         (set (make-local-variable 'ac-sources)
              (append ac-sources '(ac-source-rope)))
         (set (make-local-variable 'ac-find-function) 'ac-python-find)
         (set (make-local-variable 'ac-candidate-function) 'ac-python-candidate)
         (set (make-local-variable 'ac-auto-start) nil)))
;;Ryan's python specific tab completion
(defun ryan-python-tab ()
  ; Try the following:
  ; 1) Do a yasnippet expansion
  ; 2) Do a Rope code completion
  ; 3) Do an indent
  (interactive)
  (if (eql (ac-start) 0)
      (indent-for-tab-command)))
(defadvice ac-start (before advice-turn-on-auto-start activate)
  (set (make-local-variable 'ac-auto-start) t))
(defadvice ac-cleanup (after advice-turn-off-auto-start activate)
  (set (make-local-variable 'ac-auto-start) nil))
(define-key py-mode-map "\t" 'ryan-python-tab)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;; End Auto Completion
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Auto Syntax Error Hightlight
;(require 'flymake)

;;===== PyFlakes
;; code checking via pyflakes+flymake
;(load-file "C:/.emacs.d/flymake-cursor.el")

;Commented because this is giving  mea  problem


;(when (load "flymake" t)
;  (defun flymake-pyflakes-init ()
;    (let* ((temp-file (flymake-init-create-temp-buffer-copy
;              'flymake-create-temp-inplace))
;      (local-file (file-relative-name
;           temp-file
;           (file-name-directory buffer-file-name))))
;      (list "pyflakes" (list local-file))))
;  (add-to-list 'flymake-allowed-file-name-masks
;          '("\\.py\\'" flymake-pyflakes-init)))
;(add-hook 'find-file-hook 'flymake-find-file-hook)
;
;(provide 'init_python)

Answer 1

If you used apt-get as in those instructions then I don't imagine it's a permission issue*, so it sounds like emacs just can't see the executable.

flymake calls start-process which looks for the program in the exec-path directories (C-hv exec-path RET)

You can put something like (add-to-list 'exec-path "~/bin") in your .emacs to make the appropriate directory visible.

(*) If you didn't install it with a package manager, OTOH, then I would also check permissions.

Answer 2

Got it to work finally!

Thanks to phils for pointing me in the right direction. After googling, found this and with the help of google translator (The page is in Russian) was able to finally get syntax checking to work!

Details in english:

After installing pyflakes the usual way, do the following:

1. Create file called runpyflakes.py in _YourPythonRootDir_\Scripts with the following code:

   from pyflakes.scripts.pyflakes import main
   main()

2. Create file called "pyflakes.bat" in _YourPythonRootDir_\Scripts with the following lines:

   @_YourPythonRootDir_\python.exe _YourPythonRootDir_\Scripts\runpyflakes.py %*

3. Add _YourPythonRootDir_\Scripts to the "Path" environment variable

PROBLEM SOLVED!!!

Note: _YourPythonRootDir_=path to Python's root directory on your system. In mine its C:\Python26\

Thanks Phils,Starkey, and gelvaos of course!!!