#855 x-terminal-emulator isn't known

[Sworddragon]

I'm using PCManFM 1.2.0 and on starting it I'm getting the following warning:

** (pcmanfm:21653): WARNING **: terminal x-terminal-emulator isn't known, consider report it to LibFM developers

x-terminal-emulator is an alternative pointing to the real terminal which is in my case lxterminal. Replacing in ~/.config/libfm/libfm.conf the line "terminal=x-terminal-emulator %s" with "terminal=lxterminal %s" works fine.

I'm wondering why PCManFM is showing a warning if it doesn't know the terminal (is this some sort of security mechanism?) but maybe PCManFM could test if the terminal is a symlink and following all symlinks first.

[Lonely Stranger]

Thank you for noticing that.
Well, x-terminal-emulator isn't a real terminal emulator, therefore only generic assumptions about its usability can be applied. For not known terminal not all functions will work, and even it may not work at all (due to fact different terminals have different command line arguments), it's why it shows that warning. In any case it's advised to use real terminal instead (therefore such setting as leave terminal window open after execution may work for chosen terminal, most of terminal emulators support this functionality).
Also testing paths and following symlinks to find the executable is not much reliable way to do the thing.

I haven't decided what is worse - simply add the x-terminal-emulator as generic terminal (it might be risky though) or check and compose another warning instead of mentioned one.

And BTW, the "%s" in mentioned string should be omitted, it is ignored anyway.

[Sworddragon]

In any case it's advised to use real terminal instead

This would conflict with the idea of alternatives so this is in my opinion not the ideal solution.

Changing the warning and removing the recommendation for a report would be at least a little better.

[Lonely Stranger]

I believe you don't understand the idea behind alternatives. Alternatives is meant to set initial system default for users who don't chose own selection yet. It was never meant for selection of application for user, the selection is done on the application base and for lxde applications it is done in LibFM (PCManFM uses it, and lxpanel will use the same setting starting at version 0.7.0).

So you think out of my choices (add x-terminal-emulator as generic terminal into the list of supported, or change warning into appropriate info message) changing of warning is better?

Thank you very much.

[Sworddragon]

I believe you don't understand the idea behind alternatives.

Yes I do. Alternatives are taking care of the default application. So for example game xyz hasn't make to checks for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc. if it is installed to start a browser. Instead it calls just x-www-browser. In the past I had often to change the terminal due to bugs. Just think what would happen if every application wants a configuration change in such a case -> this is there alternatives are taking place.

So you think out of my choices (add x-terminal-emulator as generic terminal into the list of supported, or change warning into appropriate info message) changing of warning is better?

I'm not sure. I think common terminals like lxterminal, gnome-terminal and xterm should work fine. But it could be a problem if a new terminal makes its way which behaves differently here. But I doubt that such a terminal will spread further in the distributions if it would be incompatible with x-terminal-emulator. At least if users are complaining in their distribution bug trackers that their system is broken.

[Lonely Stranger]

So for example game xyz hasn't make to checks for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc.

Wrong assumption. Game should not hardcode any application at all, be it firefox or x-www-browser, this is non-standard and non-portable way. For the browser the game should use default application for "x-scheme-handler/http" MIME type. Read XDG standards, please, if you don't believe me. Well, in debian-derived distros the x-www-browser is set as such default application initially (until user choose another one) so in some cases it looks like as if game uses x-www-browser.

I've pushed change into libfm sources so for x-terminal-emulator it will not show mentioned warning anymore but show simple info message instead.

Thank you very much.

[Sworddragon]

At least it is important that users are not forced to set explicitely a real terminal in LibFM so the scenario from the discussion wouldn't happen.

[Lonely Stranger]

Well, it was never really enforced before and warning is always just a message, in this case this is also true - x-terminal-emulator worked with generic settings, as it does now still. Though using real terminal will allow you to use option 'Don't close terminal window after execution' which is important if you need to see results in terminal (that option is available in application settings but it does not work for x-terminal-emulator and few other terminals), and also use some useful application attributes such as window icon or startup notification. None of those are available for x-terminal-emulator which is why it's still preferrable to use real terminal instead of system-wide default which isn't possible to be changed by a regular user, BTW.

[Sworddragon]

Well, it was never really enforced before

Yes, but this was just a hypothetical worst case :P
I think it is fine as it is now.