dired-mode doesn't work with -F switch to ls

dired-mode doesn't work with -F switch to ls

[Krishnakumar B]

Hi,

With the following in my .emacs:

(setq dired-listing-switches "-alF")

if I open a dired buffer, and try to visit an executable file (say a batch
file), I get the following error:

dired-get-file-for-visit: File no longer exists; type `g' to update dired buffer

Which is not true, i.e., the file exists.  I think that Emacs is somehow
confused by the trailing * in the dired listing for executable files, and
tries to open a file with a * at the end.  Stack trace when error occurs is
below:

signal(error ("File no longer exists; type `g' to update dired buffer"))
error("File no longer exists; type `g' to update dired buffer")
dired-get-file-for-visit()
dired-advertised-find-file()
call-interactively(dired-advertised-find-file)

This used to work in GNU Emacs.  I am able to reproduce it with emacs -q
and manually setting the dired-listing-switches variable.  For example, a
file rename also fails with the following error:

Thu Oct 05 21:12:01 2006    Buffer `bin'
Move `c:/Tools/bin/ls.exe*' to `c:/Tools/bin/gls.exe' failed:
(file-error Renaming invalid argument c:/Tools/bin/ls.exe* c:/Tools/bin/gls.exe)

I don't have Cygwin installed, but I do have UnixUtils installed (which
ships with GNU ls).  But I think the default configuration of GNU Emacs on
Windows doesn't use the insert-directory-program since
ls-lisp-use-insert-directory-program is nil by default.  I also checked the
behaviour after renaming ls to gls, but the error persists.  So I think
that it's a bug in the lisp emulation of ls (or somewhere in dired-mode).

-kitty.


In GNU Emacs 22.0.50.1 (i386-msvc-nt5.2.3790)
of 2006-09-19 on EQUUS
X server distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.2.3790
configured using `configure --with-msvc (13.10)'

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: ENU
  locale-coding-system: cp1252
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Dired by name

Minor modes in effect:
    display-time-mode: t
    recentf-mode: t
    icomplete-mode: t
    auto-image-file-mode: t
    delete-selection-mode: t
    partial-completion-mode: t
    shell-dirtrack-mode: t
    encoded-kbd-mode: t
    tooltip-mode: t
    mouse-wheel-mode: t
    menu-bar-mode: t
    file-name-shadow-mode: t
    global-font-lock-mode: t
    font-lock-mode: t
    unify-8859-on-encoding-mode: t
    utf-translate-cjk-mode: t
    auto-compression-mode: t
    line-number-mode: t
    transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
<switch-frame> <switch-frame> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-movement>
<mouse-1> <f2> . e m <tab> <return> <prior> <prior>
C-x k <f1> <f2> $ C-g $ c C-/ <f2> <M-backspace> t
o o <tab> b i n <tab> <return> C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n
C-n <return> g g <return> q <switch-frame> <switch-frame>
<f1> <f2> C-g M-x r e i <backspace> <backspace> <backspace>
d i r e d - r e <backspace> <backspace> b u <backspace>
<backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace>
<backspace> <backspace> r e p o <tab> r t <tab> <r
eturn>

Recent messages:
Loading places from c:/kitty/.emacs-places...done
For information about the GNU Project and its goals, type C-h C-p.
Beginning of buffer
scroll-signal-boundary-error: Beginning of buffer
Quit
Undo...
Undo!
dired-get-file-for-visit: File no longer exists; type `g' to update dired buffer [2 times]
Quit
Loading emacsbug...done

-- 
Krishnakumar B <kitty at dre dot vanderbilt dot edu>
Institute for Software Integrated Systems, Dept. of EECS, Vanderbilt University

Re: dired-mode doesn't work with -F switch to ls

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Krishnakumar B <kitty@dre.vanderbilt.edu>
> Date: Thu, 05 Oct 2006 21:20:27 -0500
> 
> With the following in my .emacs:
> 
> (setq dired-listing-switches "-alF")
> 
> if I open a dired buffer, and try to visit an executable file (say a batch
> file), I get the following error:
> 
> dired-get-file-for-visit: File no longer exists; type `g' to update dired buffer
> 
> Which is not true, i.e., the file exists.  I think that Emacs is somehow
> confused by the trailing * in the dired listing for executable files, and
> tries to open a file with a * at the end.  Stack trace when error occurs is
> below:
> 
> signal(error ("File no longer exists; type `g' to update dired buffer"))
> error("File no longer exists; type `g' to update dired buffer")
> dired-get-file-for-visit()
> dired-advertised-find-file()
> call-interactively(dired-advertised-find-file)
> 
> This used to work in GNU Emacs.  I am able to reproduce it with emacs -q
> and manually setting the dired-listing-switches variable.  For example, a
> file rename also fails with the following error:
> 
> Thu Oct 05 21:12:01 2006    Buffer `bin'
> Move `c:/Tools/bin/ls.exe*' to `c:/Tools/bin/gls.exe' failed:
> (file-error Renaming invalid argument c:/Tools/bin/ls.exe* c:/Tools/bin/gls.exe)
> 
> I don't have Cygwin installed, but I do have UnixUtils installed (which
> ships with GNU ls).  But I think the default configuration of GNU Emacs on
> Windows doesn't use the insert-directory-program since
> ls-lisp-use-insert-directory-program is nil by default.  I also checked the
> behaviour after renaming ls to gls, but the error persists.  So I think
> that it's a bug in the lisp emulation of ls (or somewhere in dired-mode).

It's not a bug in ls-lisp.el, it's a well-known limitation: ls-lisp
doesn't support the -F switch yet.

And yes, if ls-lisp-use-insert-directory-program is nil, Emacs on
Windows will not use ls.exe, even if you do have it.

Re: dired-mode doesn't work with -F switch to ls

[Richard Stallman]

    It's not a bug in ls-lisp.el, it's a well-known limitation: ls-lisp
    doesn't support the -F switch yet.

Maybe it would be a good idea to make ls-lisp give an error
when -F is supplied.