! Please note that this is a snapshot of our old Bugzilla server, which is read only since May 29, 2020. Please go to gitlab.xfce.org for our new server !
xfce terminal does not honor the -e option right if there is a semicolon in t...
Status:
RESOLVED: MOVED
Product:
Xfce4-terminal
Component:
General

Comments

Description HJ 2015-03-09 20:30:07 CET
It seems the xfce4-terminal has some issues with the -e option if the is more than one command given (made this major since it breaks many scripts that use the x-terminal-emulator -e alternative(eg useing ";read" to stay open)

xterm/uxterm -e "sleep 5; echo a; sleep 3":
opens window -> sleeps 5s -> outputs a -> sleeps 3s -> closes

xfce4-terminal -e "sleep 5; echo a; sleep 3":
opens window -> closes window
Comment 1 Thaddaeus Tintenfisch editbugs 2015-03-30 00:43:06 CEST
The parameter -e does not spawn a shell, so you will have to adjust your command:

xfce4-terminal -e sh -c "sleep 5; echo a; sleep 3"

Other VTE based terminals like gnome-terminal or lxterminal behave the same way.
Comment 2 HJ 2015-03-30 15:34:02 CEST
Also i did some tests:

lxterminal, sakura, xfce4-terminal, gnome terminal failed

but it works on all non libvte based terminals i've tried:

konsole, qterminal, eterm, terminology, xterm and its derivatives

>xfce4-terminal -e sh -c "sleep 5; echo a; sleep 3"

that is not a solution, since additional cmd args will break other terminals also it would make the whole x-terminal-emulator aproach pointless

also isn't it a bit weird that it doesn't lauch a shell as terminal by executing shell commands?

Also the introduction of the terminal says all

>Terminal emulates the xterm application developed by the X Consortium

Also i've reopened this bug since it doesn't do the same as xterm does, so it seems to be a bug or xfce4-terminal doesn't want to be xterm combatible in which case you should rewirte the introduction http://docs.xfce.org/apps/terminal/introduction
Comment 3 Thaddaeus Tintenfisch editbugs 2015-03-31 12:17:22 CEST
> also it would make the whole x-terminal-emulator aproach pointless

This is a Debian only thing, or?

> also isn't it a bit weird that it doesn't lauch a shell as terminal by executing
> shell commands?

The terminal expects a command, not a shell command.

> so it seems to be a bug or xfce4-terminal doesn't want to be xterm combatible

Does this sort of compatibility include runtime parameters?


I suggest that you file a bug report against libvte and discuss if the current behavior should be changed.
Comment 4 HJ 2015-03-31 13:48:04 CEST
> This is a Debian only thing, or?

afaik yes, since it is part of the alternatives system/dpkg but it has been adopted by many other linux distributions(eg fedora) and is also available for (free)bsd

> Does this sort of compatibility include runtime parameters?

my understandig from an emulator is that it tries to emulate the program as faithful as possible since the command works in xterm and other terminals it should work on vte based terminals, too. Another reason is also that xterm is the default terminal emulator on unix systems so all scripts should be executed the same way but since vte based terminals work differently some scripts will just fail.

> I suggest that you file a bug report against libvte

maybe i will do that but i guess i will first create a bug report on debian to remove xfce4-terminal and vte based terminals from the alternatives system since they are incompatible - maybe they can add a workaround.

regards
Comment 5 HJ 2015-03-31 20:14:40 CEST
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=747108
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=152717

its also great that the author of bug 152717 had exactly the same issue as me in 2004, and even better it hasn't fixed since then - what a shame...
Comment 6 Git Bot editbugs 2020-05-24 23:41:21 CEST
-- GitLab Migration Automatic Message --

This bug has been migrated to xfce.org's GitLab instance and has been closed from further activity.

You can subscribe and participate further through the new bug through this link to our GitLab instance: https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-terminal/-/issues/10.

Please create an account or use an existing account on one of our supported OAuth providers. 

If you want to fork to submit patches and merge requests please continue reading here: https://docs.xfce.org/contribute/dev/git/start#gitlab_forks_and_merge_requests

Also feel free to reach out to us on the mailing list https://mail.xfce.org/mailman/listinfo/xfce4-dev

Bug #11673

Reported by:
HJ
Reported on: 2015-03-09
Last modified on: 2020-05-24

People

Assignee:
Nick Schermer
CC List:
1 user

Version

Attachments

Additional information