From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Spencer Baugh Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.bugs Subject: bug#63865: 29.0.90; call-process while owning the X selection hangs other processes Date: Sat, 03 Jun 2023 09:10:02 -0400 Message-ID: References: <83edmt9j8i.fsf@gnu.org> <87bkhxnhpk.fsf@yahoo.com> <87wn0kn3zu.fsf@yahoo.com> <83mt1g9044.fsf@gnu.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="38702"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Cc: luangruo@yahoo.com, 63865@debbugs.gnu.org To: Eli Zaretskii Original-X-From: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Sat Jun 03 15:11:21 2023 Return-path: Envelope-to: geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1q5R2O-0009sn-EO for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org; Sat, 03 Jun 2023 15:11:20 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1] helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1q5R29-0002xn-Bg; Sat, 03 Jun 2023 09:11:05 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1q5R27-0002x3-JO for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 03 Jun 2023 09:11:03 -0400 Original-Received: from debbugs.gnu.org ([209.51.188.43]) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_128_GCM_SHA256:128) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1q5R27-00049T-Ad for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 03 Jun 2023 09:11:03 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-debbugs by debbugs.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1q5R27-00022R-5n for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 03 Jun 2023 09:11:03 -0400 X-Loop: help-debbugs@gnu.org Resent-From: Spencer Baugh Original-Sender: "Debbugs-submit" Resent-CC: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Resent-Date: Sat, 03 Jun 2023 13:11:03 +0000 Resent-Message-ID: Resent-Sender: help-debbugs@gnu.org X-GNU-PR-Message: followup 63865 X-GNU-PR-Package: emacs Original-Received: via spool by 63865-submit@debbugs.gnu.org id=B63865.16857978117720 (code B ref 63865); Sat, 03 Jun 2023 13:11:03 +0000 Original-Received: (at 63865) by debbugs.gnu.org; 3 Jun 2023 13:10:11 +0000 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:41793 helo=debbugs.gnu.org) by debbugs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1q5R1G-00020R-VS for submit@debbugs.gnu.org; Sat, 03 Jun 2023 09:10:11 -0400 Original-Received: from mxout5.mail.janestreet.com ([64.215.233.18]:42333) by debbugs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1q5R1D-000208-R3 for 63865@debbugs.gnu.org; Sat, 03 Jun 2023 09:10:09 -0400 In-Reply-To: <83mt1g9044.fsf@gnu.org> (Eli Zaretskii's message of "Sat, 03 Jun 2023 15:55:07 +0300") X-BeenThere: debbugs-submit@debbugs.gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list X-BeenThere: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org List-Id: "Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.bugs:262831 Archived-At: Eli Zaretskii writes: >> If I'm implementing some package and I decide to use call-process for >> some long operation, then some user uses my package and it runs >> call-process, and they get bored while waiting and switch away from >> Emacs, they'll experience a hang in some other application. That hang >> seems clearly undesirable! > > Then don't design the package such that call-process blocks Emacs for > prolonged periods of time. Because this will annoy the users of Emacs > even before it will be seen by other applications that request X > selections. Forget other packages: Emacs itself uses call-process in tons of places where it will run for prolonged periods of time! In fact, I just ran "C-x p g call-process" to search for instances, only to find that that command itself uses call-process and hung my other applications! Should we port all these instances away from using call-process to avoid this behavior? I certainly would like to, because I don't like that when I do a particularly long process-find-regexp or shell-command or any other operation which uses call-process, it doesn't just hang Emacs, it hangs basically my whole OS. >> I'm personally working around this by replacing call-process with >> start-process and accept-process-output. Because otherwise my packages >> (and any other package using call-process ever) will cause random hangs >> in other applications, which is obviously bad and not something anyone >> would want. >> >> So perhaps call-process on Unix should be reimplemented in terms of >> those functions? Or if that would change behavior too much, perhaps >> call-process should be deprecated in favor of some new helper built on >> those? > > call-process has its use cases, which are important, and we will not > deprecate it. > > You can easily emulate call-process with start-process if you need to > do so, so Emacs gives you both possibilities (and expects you to use > whatever is right in each case). What use case does call-process have on Unix, which an emulation in terms of start-process would not also satisfy?