bug#46521: 27.1; emacs -nw openwith package ; external gui programs; window focus

bug#46521: 27.1; emacs -nw openwith package ; external gui programs; window focus

[William Garber]

# emacs has the openwith package
$ emacs -nw
# navigate to a directory in dired mode
# move up and down arrows to pick a file, e.g. a .pdf file
# press v
# file is opened by a gui pdf viewer e.g. okular
# exit the pdf viewer
# emacs window is no longer focused
# would like emacs window to be focused please.
# emacs does not crash.
# mate desktop environment
# occurs with marco window manager
# does NOT occur with compiz window manager
# see
https://github.com/jothan/mate-window-manager/blob/master/doc/how-to-get-focus-right.txt 

# see
https://github.com/mate-desktop/marco/issues/647
# see
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1873747
# see
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1859417


In GNU Emacs 27.1 (build 1, x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 
3.24.22, cairo version 1.16.0)
of 2020-08-20 built on buildhw-x86-03.iad2.fedoraproject.org
System Description: Fedora 33 (MATE-Compiz)

Recent messages:
Loading /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/site-start.d/systemtap-init.el 
(source)...done
Loading openwith...done
Waiting for git... [2 times]
[yas] Prepared just-in-time loading of snippets successfully.
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
Loading dired-x...done
Omitting...
(Nothing to omit)
Omitting...
Omitted 90 lines.

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
--sharedstatedir=/var/lib --mandir=/usr/share/man
--infodir=/usr/share/info --with-dbus --with-gif --with-jpeg --with-png
--with-rsvg --with-tiff --with-xft --with-xpm --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
--with-gpm=no --with-xwidgets --with-modules --with-harfbuzz
--with-cairo --with-json 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,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2
-Wp,-D_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS
-specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-hardened-cc1 -fstack-protector-strong
-specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-annobin-cc1 -m64 -mtune=generic
-fasynchronous-unwind-tables -fstack-clash-protection -fcf-protection'
LDFLAGS=-Wl,-z,relro
PKG_CONFIG_PATH=:/usr/lib64/pkgconfig:/usr/share/pkgconfig'

Configured features:
XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG CAIRO SOUND DBUS GSETTINGS GLIB NOTIFY
INOTIFY ACL LIBSELINUX GNUTLS LIBXML2 FREETYPE HARFBUZZ M17N_FLT LIBOTF
ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS GTK3 X11 XDBE XIM MODULES THREADS XWIDGETS
LIBSYSTEMD JSON PDUMPER GMP

Important settings:
value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=none
locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: Dired by name

Minor modes in effect:
dired-omit-mode: t
pyvenv-mode: t
shell-dirtrack-mode: t
openwith-mode: t
tooltip-mode: t
global-eldoc-mode: t
electric-indent-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
auto-composition-mode: t
auto-encryption-mode: t
auto-compression-mode: t
buffer-read-only: t
column-number-mode: t
line-number-mode: t
transient-mark-mode: t

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message rmc puny rfc822 mml mml-sec epa
derived epg epg-config gnus-util rmail rmail-loaddefs
text-property-search mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231
mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums
mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils dired-aux dired-x dired dired-loaddefs
term/xterm xterm iimage flycheck-pyflakes flycheck find-func rx dash
cl-extra yasnippet highlight-indentation flymake-proc flymake warnings
thingatpt company-capf company pcase help-fns radix-tree help-mode elpy
advice elpy-rpc pyvenv eshell esh-cmd esh-ext esh-opt esh-proc esh-io
esh-arg esh-module esh-groups esh-util elpy-shell elpy-profile
elpy-django s elpy-refactor python tramp-sh tramp tramp-loaddefs
trampver tramp-integration tramp-compat shell pcomplete parse-time
iso8601 time-date ls-lisp format-spec ido grep compile comint ansi-color
files-x etags fileloop generator xref project ring cus-edit cus-start
cus-load wid-edit edmacro kmacro jka-compr openwith finder-inf printing
ps-print ps-print-loaddefs ps-def lpr clang-rename clang-include-fixer
let-alist clang-format xml info package easymenu browse-url url-handlers
url-parse auth-source cl-seq eieio eieio-core cl-macs eieio-loaddefs
password-cache json subr-x map url-vars seq byte-opt gv bytecomp
byte-compile cconv cl-loaddefs cl-lib tooltip eldoc electric uniquify
ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel term/x-win x-win
term/common-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe
tabulated-list replace newcomment text-mode elisp-mode lisp-mode
prog-mode register page tab-bar menu-bar rfn-eshadow isearch timer
select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core
term/tty-colors frame minibuffer cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang
misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms
cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian
cyrillic chinese composite charscript charprop case-table epa-hook
jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev obarray cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs
button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5
base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable
backquote threads dbusbind inotify dynamic-setting system-font-setting
font-render-setting xwidget-internal cairo move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit x
multi-tty make-network-process emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 16 311791 15089)
(symbols 48 23263 1)
(strings 32 102467 2778)
(string-bytes 1 2986219)
(vectors 16 32821)
(vector-slots 8 367311 12534)
(floats 8 343 403)
(intervals 56 967 58)
(buffers 1000 12))

bug#46521: 27.1; emacs -nw openwith package ; external gui programs; window focus

[Matt Armstrong]

William, this strikes me as a window manager bug.  Focus policy is the
job of the window manager.  GUI applications can have some influence
over focus, but Emacs does not play very many games with this, and also
the behavior you describe is very unlikely to have any role in this
scenario. Because you have run it with the -nw argument, the window
manager would be delivering focus to the terminal, not emacs.

You have already filed https://github.com/mate-desktop/marco/issues/647,
which is where I belive the issue lies.

Please feel free to come back with specific details if indeed the issue
seems to be in Emacs.  To be useful we'll need to know how Emacs is
violating window manager policies, etc.  The Marco developers shoudl be
able to describe them.