bug#18875: 25.0.50; Dired -- add support for ls --time-style with a space

bug#18875: 25.0.50; Dired -- add support for ls --time-style with a space

[Keith David Bershatsky]

The ls version that I use is coreutils-8.21 for OSX.  I would like to be able to use a custom time-style format in dired-mode, such that there is a space between the date and the time:

--time-style=+%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S

Without modifying the source code, I have not found a viable method to set the `dired-listing-switches`.

In my quest to track down the root cause, I discovered that `indirect-directory` within `files.el` supports both a list and a string format for the `switches`.  However, `dired-indirect-directory` and other functions in dired-mode only support a string.  Therefore, I have two suggestions.

1.  Tweak the applicable functions to permit a space within the time-style when `switches` is a string format.

2.  Modify the applicable functions in dired-mode to permit support for a list form of `switches`, instead of only a string.  `indirect-files` already contains methods for dealing with detecting whether a string or a list is used, and different actions are taken based thereon.  So, copying some of the functionality from `indirect-files` may be the easiest method to add list support for `switches` in dired-mode.

Here is the related thread that I opened on the beta version of Emacs stackexchange:

http://emacs.stackexchange.com/q/2722/2287

Thanks,

Keith

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bug#18875: 25.0.50; Dired -- add support for ls --time-style with a space

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 09:44:07 -0700
> From: Keith David Bershatsky <esq@lawlist.com>
> 
> The ls version that I use is coreutils-8.21 for OSX.  I would like to be able to use a custom time-style format in dired-mode, such that there is a space between the date and the time:
> 
> --time-style=+%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S
> 
> Without modifying the source code, I have not found a viable method to set the `dired-listing-switches`.

Doesn't "C-u C-x d" do what you want?

bug#18875: 25.0.50; Dired -- add support for ls --time-style with a space

[Keith David Bershatsky]

Thank you, Eli, for taking a look at this report (#18875).

`hour:minute:seconds` is omitted because there is a space between the date and the time.

C-u C-x d

-alh --group-directories-first --time-style=+%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S

Keith

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At Tue, 28 Oct 2014 19:04:15 +0200,
Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> 
> > Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 09:44:07 -0700
> > From: Keith David Bershatsky <esq@lawlist.com>
> > 
> > The ls version that I use is coreutils-8.21 for OSX.  I would like to be able to use a custom time-style format in dired-mode, such that there is a space between the date and the time:
> > 
> > --time-style=+%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S
> > 
> > Without modifying the source code, I have not found a viable method to set the `dired-listing-switches`.
> 
> Doesn't "C-u C-x d" do what you want?

bug#18875: 25.0.50; Dired -- add support for ls --time-style with a space

[Keith David Bershatsky]

Here is an example that works when switches in a list format using `insert-directory` from files.el:

(insert-directory "/" '("--dired" "-alth" "--time-style=+%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S") nil t)

bug#18875: 25.0.50; Dired -- add support for ls --time-style with a space

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Keith David Bershatsky <esq@lawlist.com> writes:

> Thank you, Eli, for taking a look at this report (#18875).
>
> `hour:minute:seconds` is omitted because there is a space between the
> date and the time.
>
> C-u C-x d
>
> -alh --group-directories-first --time-style=+%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S

(I'm going through old bug reports that unfortunately weren't resolved
at the time.)

These are things that has to be understandable to the shell, so you have
to quote things appropriately for the shell.

So I'd expect this to work:

C-u C-x d
-alh --group-directories-first --time-style="+%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S"

But it doesn't;

(insert-directory "/tmp/" "-alh --time-style=\"+%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S\"")

fails.

(split-string-and-unquote "-alh --time-style=\"+%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S\"")
=> ("-alh" "--time-style=" "+%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S")

However, this works:

(insert-directory "/tmp/" "-alh \"--time-style=+%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S\"")

So...  dired supports spaces in command line arguments, but you have to
quote the argument, so I'm closing this bug report.  However, there's a
bug in `split-string-and-unquote', so I'm opening a new report for that.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#18875: 25.0.50; Dired -- add support for ls --time-style with a space

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> So...  dired supports spaces in command line arguments, but you have to
> quote the argument, so I'm closing this bug report.  However, there's a
> bug in `split-string-and-unquote', so I'm opening a new report for that.

Or...  the problem isn't in that function -- it works as designed, and
parses a Lisp-style string correctly.

`insert-directory' should be using `split-string-shell-command' instead,
and I've now done that in Emacs 28.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#18875: 25.0.50; Dired -- add support for ls --time-style with a space

[Juri Linkov]

>> So...  dired supports spaces in command line arguments, but you have to
>> quote the argument, so I'm closing this bug report.  However, there's a
>> bug in `split-string-and-unquote', so I'm opening a new report for that.
>
> Or...  the problem isn't in that function -- it works as designed, and
> parses a Lisp-style string correctly.
>
> `insert-directory' should be using `split-string-shell-command' instead,
> and I've now done that in Emacs 28.

The commit 04f723dec944eaa7b5e99373840a8bf920ba5fdd
broke my config with the error signaled by insert-directory:
(error "Listing directory failed but ‘access-file’ worked")

When dired-listing-switches is customized to
"-Alv --block-size='1"

split-string-and-unquote parses switches correctly:
("--dired" "-Alv" ""--block-size='1" "-t")

But split-string-shell-command does a wrong thing:
("--dired" "-Alv"" "--block-size=1 -t")

and ls fails:
/bin/ls: invalid suffix in --block-size argument '1 -t'

bug#18875: 25.0.50; Dired -- add support for ls --time-style with a space

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Juri Linkov <juri@linkov.net> writes:

> The commit 04f723dec944eaa7b5e99373840a8bf920ba5fdd
> broke my config with the error signaled by insert-directory:
> (error "Listing directory failed but ‘access-file’ worked")
>
> When dired-listing-switches is customized to
> "-Alv --block-size='1"

Hm, well, that's not a valid shell string, is it?

It should be "-Alv --block-size=\"'1\"" or something like that to be
valid...

Hm...  Oh!  The doc string actually documents this (that it's not using
shell quoting).

---
Options that include embedded whitespace must be quoted
like this: "--option=value with spaces"; you can use
‘combine-and-quote-strings’ to produce the correct quoting of
each option.
---

So this was the original answer to this bug report.  I'll revert the
change.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#18875: 25.0.50; Dired -- add support for ls --time-style with a space

[Juri Linkov]

>> The commit 04f723dec944eaa7b5e99373840a8bf920ba5fdd
>> broke my config with the error signaled by insert-directory:
>> (error "Listing directory failed but ‘access-file’ worked")
>>
>> When dired-listing-switches is customized to
>> "-Alv --block-size='1"
>
> Hm, well, that's not a valid shell string, is it?
>
> It should be "-Alv --block-size=\"'1\"" or something like that to be
> valid...

Then split-string-shell-command parses correctly:
(split-string-shell-command "-Alv --block-size=\"'1\"")
("-Alv" "--block-size='1")

but split-string-and-unquote fails:
(split-string-and-unquote "-Alv --block-size=\"'1\"")
("-Alv" "--block-size=" "'1")

> Hm...  Oh!  The doc string actually documents this (that it's not using
> shell quoting).
>
> ---
> Options that include embedded whitespace must be quoted
> like this: "--option=value with spaces"; you can use
> ‘combine-and-quote-strings’ to produce the correct quoting of
> each option.
> ---

Ah, now I see what is the correct way, and indeed both functions work
when dired-listing-switches is customized to "-Alv \"--block-size='1\"".

(split-string-shell-command "-Alv \"--block-size='1\"")
("-Alv" "--block-size='1")

(split-string-and-unquote "-Alv \"--block-size='1\"")
("-Alv" "--block-size='1")

> So this was the original answer to this bug report.  I'll revert the
> change.

Thanks, it's good that don't need to amend the existing customization.