bug#12044: 24.1; ls does not support --dired

bug#12044: 24.1; ls does not support --dired

[Peter Dyballa]

Hello!

In GNU Emacs 23 it works to launch it with -Q and a system ls which does not support --dired (but -dired). This fails to work in version 24.1. This version is also missing a possibly helpful setting like

	(setq insert-directory-program "gls" dired-use-ls-dired t)

In GNU Emacs 24.1.1 (x86_64-apple-darwin10.8.0, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2012-07-25 on Sumac.local
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11202000
Configured using:
 `configure '--without-pop' '--without-sound' '--without-gpm'
 '--without-dbus' '--without-gconf' '--with-x-toolkit=athena'
 '--disable-ns-self-contained' '--enable-dependency-tracking'
 '--x-libraries=/opt/local/lib' '--x-includes=/opt/local/include'
 '--enable-locallisppath=/Library/Application
 Support/Emacs/calendar24:/Library/Application Support/Emacs' 'CFLAGS=-v
 -g -H -pipe -fPIC -fno-common -Os -m64 -march=core2 -mtune=core2
 -foptimize-register-move -ftree-vectorize -fomit-frame-pointer
 -msse4.2' 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-dead_strip_dylibs -Wl,-bind_at_load -Wl,-t
 -m64' 'CC=clang' 'CXX=clang++' 'LD=llvm-gcc-4.2'
 'PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/local/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/local/share/pkgconfig''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: de_DE.UTF-8
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: de_DE.UTF-8
  value of $XMODIFIERS: nil
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix
  default enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Fundamental

Minor modes in effect:
  tooltip-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  tool-bar-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent messages:
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
ls does not support --dired; see `dired-use-ls-dired' for more details.
Quit


--
Greetings

  Pete

It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.

bug#12044: Acknowledgement (24.1; ls does not support --dired)

[Peter Dyballa]

After putting

	(setq ls-lisp-use-insert-directory-program t)
	(setq insert-directory-program "gls")

into the site init file (/Library/Application Support/Emacs/site-start.el) GNU Emacs 24.1 now uses gls instead of ls, although the correct solution would be to use the system's ls and -dired instead of --dired. This solution obviously cannot be achieved any more. And it worked in GNU Emacs 23.4 when launched with -Q: ls seems to be found and -dired seems to be used.

A second problem exists with possible use of the variable dired-listing-switches. With GNU gls I use "-ahlN" which has to be with the system's ls "-ahlw".

--
Greetings

  Pete

Don't just do something, sit there.

bug#12044: Acknowledgement (24.1; ls does not support --dired)

[Andreas Schwab]

Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa@Freenet.DE> writes:

> And it worked in GNU Emacs 23.4 when launched with -Q: ls seems to be
> found and -dired seems to be used.

But it probably doesn't do what you think it does.

Andreas.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, schwab@linux-m68k.org
GPG Key fingerprint = 58CA 54C7 6D53 942B 1756  01D3 44D5 214B 8276 4ED5
"And now for something completely different."

bug#12044: 24.1; ls does not support --dired

[Glenn Morris]

Peter Dyballa wrote:

> In GNU Emacs 23 it works to launch it with -Q and a system ls which
> does not support --dired (but -dired). This fails to work in version
> 24.1.

Please give the details of how it "fails to work".

Note that

ls -dired

is equivalent to

ls -d -i -r -e -d

for any sane implementation of ls, ie not relevant.

> This version is also missing a possibly helpful setting like
>
> 	(setq insert-directory-program "gls" dired-use-ls-dired t)

Not appropriate for Emacs, but very much so for your .emacs.

bug#12044: 24.1; ls does not support --dired

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 30.07.2012 um 01:38 schrieb Glenn Morris:

> Please give the details of how it "fails to work".

It reports

	ls does not support --dired; see `dired-use-ls-dired' for more details.

but produces somehow a good directory listing with file names like (where the umlauts cannot be found, but that's another problem probably):

  -rw-r--r--   1 pete  admin       17 25 Mär  2010 o₂
  -rw-rw-r--@  1 pete  admin    32216 17 Nov  2002 RGB äöüæÆÜÖÄ.txt

Maybe I am misinterpreting this message. I am concerned because I had prepared for GNU Emacsen 23 and 24 customisation à la

	 '(dired-listing-switches "-ahlN")

which are only OK for gls. Previously I could simply

	(setq dired-use-ls-dired "gls --dired")

now it's getting a bit confusing. Is gls found and used or is the ls emulation doing the job? It would be an improvement when GNU Emacs would also report what it will use to generate the dired buffers.

> 
> Note that
> 
> ls -dired
> 
> is equivalent to
> 
> ls -d -i -r -e -d
> 
> for any sane implementation of ls, ie not relevant.

I see!

--
Greetings

  Pete

Don't just do something, sit there.

bug#12044: 24.1; ls does not support --dired

[Glenn Morris]

Peter Dyballa wrote:

>> Please give the details of how it "fails to work".
>
> It reports
>
> 	ls does not support --dired; see `dired-use-ls-dired' for more details.

And when you read the documentation of dired-use-ls-dired, what was
unclear?

> Previously I could simply
>
> 	(setq dired-use-ls-dired "gls --dired")

Why would you do this? It is a boolean option.

bug#12044: 24.1; ls does not support --dired

[Glenn Morris]

PS If I can summarize, dired is working exactly as it used to before,
but is giving an extra informative message that your "ls" does not
support "--dired", so it will perform suboptimally, as described in the
doc of dired-use-ls-dired. I cannot see why you think it is failing to
work.

Either customize dired-use-ls-dired to nil, to suppress the message and
go back to how it used to be, or it seems on your system you can set
insert-directory-program to "gls", which is GNU ls I assume.

bug#12044: 24.1; ls does not support --dired

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 30.07.2012 um 20:58 schrieb Glenn Morris:

> Either customize dired-use-ls-dired to nil, to suppress the message and
> go back to how it used to be, or it seems on your system you can set
> insert-directory-program to "gls", which is GNU ls I assume.

	(setq insert-directory-program "gls") 

still seems to do the job – and it silences the report. This "gls" is indeed GNU ls (8.17). But… 'emacs -Q' shows the report on ls and starts the dired buffer with:

  /Users/pete:
  total used in directory 1149800 available 159246008
  drwxr-xr-x+ 92 pete   admin      23188 29 Jul 22:50 .

When I execute

	(setq insert-directory-program "gls") 

in *scratch* buffer, then the opened dired buffer starts with:

  /Users/pete:
  insgesamt 574900
  drwxr-xr-x+ 92 pete  admin     23188 29. Jul 22:50 .

For both cases this is valid:

	dired-listing-switches is a variable defined in `dired.el'.
	Its value is "-al"

The latter output is from gls, the former from the ls emulation?

--
Greetings

  Pete

Time flies like an error – but fruit flies like a banana!
				- (almost) Groucho Marx

bug#12044: 24.1; ls does not support --dired

[Glenn Morris]

Peter Dyballa wrote:

>> Either customize dired-use-ls-dired to nil, to suppress the message and
>> go back to how it used to be, or it seems on your system you can set
>> insert-directory-program to "gls", which is GNU ls I assume.
>
> 	(setq insert-directory-program "gls") 
>
> still seems to do the job – and it silences the report.

As I said. Nothing has changed in this regard.

> But… 'emacs -Q' shows the report

As expected.

> The latter output is from gls, the former from the ls emulation?

I have no idea what you mean, or what the bug is supposed to be here. 
Emulation of ls in lisp is used by default on MS Windows only.
It has no relevance to any other platform unless you explicitly choose
to use it.

bug#12044: 24.1; ls does not support --dired

[Peter Dyballa]

Let's say it's solved now.

--
Greetings

  Pete

One cannot live by television, video games, top ten CDs, and dumb movies alone.
				– Amiri Baraka, 1999

bug#12044: 24.1; ls does not support --dired

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 30.07.2012 um 20:53 schrieb Glenn Morris:

> Peter Dyballa wrote:
> 
>>> Please give the details of how it "fails to work".
>> 
>> It reports
>> 
>> 	ls does not support --dired; see `dired-use-ls-dired' for more details.
> 
> And when you read the documentation of dired-use-ls-dired, what was
> unclear?

Most. The documentation starts with:

	dired-use-ls-dired is a variable defined in `dired.el'.
	Its value is nil
	Original value was unspecified

So GNU Emacs started with a promising value, "unspecified". It then found that ls is not right, and it then did not find – or search for – gls, because "unspecified" was reset to nil. Why did it so? What is the reason for the failure? In GNU Emacs 24.0.50 

> 
>> Previously I could simply
>> 
>> 	(setq dired-use-ls-dired "gls --dired")
> 
> Why would you do this? It is a boolean option.


Maybe I thought it would teach GNU Emacs to use the right programme. Probably I found this was faulty because the line is commented with a ";" – and no text in my init file. What seemed to have worked once (in GNU Emacs < 24) are these two lines from my site init file:

	(setq ls-lisp-use-insert-directory-program t)
	(setq insert-directory-program "gls")


--
Greetings

  Pete

There's something the technicians need to learn from the artists. If it isn't aesthetically pleasing, it's probably wrong.