bug#70590: 29.3; PGTK emacs doesn't automatically run on the terminal when it has no graphical display

bug#70590: 29.3; PGTK emacs doesn't automatically run on the terminal when it has no graphical display

[Peter Oliver]

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Traditionally, if you ran Emacs from a terminal, with no graphical display available, it used that terminal for its display.  With the pure GTK build of Emacs, this only works if you explicitly specify the –-no-window-system option.  Otherwise:

- - - - - - -
$ env DISPLAY= WAYLAND_DISPLAY= emacs -Q

(emacs:13745): Gtk-WARNING **: 11:12:58.299: cannot open display: 
$ echo $?
1
- - - - - - -


In GNU Emacs 29.3 (build 1, x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version
  3.24.41, cairo version 1.18.0) of 2024-04-26 built on
  cabaf4098b994f6da8ef60f3f6652faa
System Description: Fedora Linux 40 (Workstation Edition)

Configured using:
  'configure --build=x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu
  --host=x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu --program-prefix=
  --disable-dependency-tracking --prefix=/usr --exec-prefix=/usr
  --bindir=/usr/bin --sbindir=/usr/sbin --sysconfdir=/etc
  --datadir=/usr/share --includedir=/usr/include --libdir=/usr/lib64
  --libexecdir=/usr/libexec --localstatedir=/var --runstatedir=/run
  --sharedstatedir=/var/lib --mandir=/usr/share/man
  --infodir=/usr/share/info --with-cairo --with-dbus --with-gif
  --with-gpm=no --with-harfbuzz --with-jpeg --with-json --with-modules
  --with-native-compilation=aot --with-pgtk --with-png --with-rsvg
  --with-sqlite3 --with-tiff --with-tree-sitter --with-webp --with-xpm
  --with-xwidgets build_alias=x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu
  host_alias=x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu CC=gcc 'CFLAGS=-DMAIL_USE_LOCKF -O2
  -flto=auto -ffat-lto-objects -fexceptions -g -grecord-gcc-switches
  -pipe -Wall -Werror=format-security
  -Wp,-U_FORTIFY_SOURCE,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=3 -Wp,-D_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS
  -specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-hardened-cc1 -fstack-protector-strong
  -specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-annobin-cc1 -m64 -march=x86-64
  -mtune=generic -fasynchronous-unwind-tables -fstack-clash-protection
  -fcf-protection -fno-omit-frame-pointer -mno-omit-leaf-frame-pointer '
  LDFLAGS=-Wl,-z,relro
  PKG_CONFIG_PATH=:/usr/lib64/pkgconfig:/usr/share/pkgconfig CXX=g++
  'CXXFLAGS=-O2 -flto=auto -ffat-lto-objects -fexceptions -g
  -grecord-gcc-switches -pipe -Wall -Werror=format-security
  -Wp,-U_FORTIFY_SOURCE,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=3 -Wp,-D_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS
  -specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-hardened-cc1 -fstack-protector-strong
  -specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-annobin-cc1 -m64 -march=x86-64
  -mtune=generic -fasynchronous-unwind-tables -fstack-clash-protection
  -fcf-protection -fno-omit-frame-pointer -mno-omit-leaf-frame-pointer ''

Configured features:
ACL CAIRO DBUS FREETYPE GIF GLIB GMP GNUTLS GSETTINGS HARFBUZZ JPEG JSON
LIBOTF LIBSELINUX LIBSYSTEMD LIBXML2 MODULES NATIVE_COMP NOTIFY INOTIFY
PDUMPER PGTK PNG RSVG SECCOMP SOUND SQLITE3 THREADS TIFF
TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS TREE_SITTER WEBP XIM XWIDGETS GTK3 ZLIB

Important settings:
   value of $LANG: en_GB.UTF-8
   value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=ibus
   locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

-- 
Peter Oliver

bug#70590: 29.3; PGTK emacs doesn't automatically run on the terminal when it has no graphical display

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2024 11:25:40 +0100 (BST)
> From: Peter Oliver <lists.gnu.org@mavit.org.uk>
> 
> Traditionally, if you ran Emacs from a terminal, with no graphical display available, it used that terminal for its display.  With the pure GTK build of Emacs, this only works if you explicitly specify the –-no-window-system option.  Otherwise:
> 
> - - - - - - -
> $ env DISPLAY= WAYLAND_DISPLAY= emacs -Q
> 
> (emacs:13745): Gtk-WARNING **: 11:12:58.299: cannot open display: 
> $ echo $?
> 1
> - - - - - - -

See bug#63555.  We've decided not to fix this, given the royal mess
that GTK developers left behind, as described in the discussion of
that bug.  The NEWS file in the Emacs 29 distribution says, inter
alia, about the PGTK build:

  Note that, unlike the X build of Emacs, the PGTK build cannot
  automatically switch to text-mode interface (thus emulating '-nw') if
  it cannot determine the default display; it will instead complain and
  ask you to invoke it with the explicit '-nw' option.

Sorry.