Emacs Client doesn't work

[CobaltSpace]

When I have emacsclient set to open a file, nothing happens.
testing with mimeopen from perl-file-mimeinfo works as expected.

I suspect this may have to do with character escaping in the Exec line

// handlr get text/org --json
{"cmd":"sh -c if [ -n \\\\$*\\ ]; then exec /usr/bin/emacsclient --alternate-editor= --reuse-frame \\\\$@\\; else exec emacsclient --alternate-editor= --create-frame; fi sh","handler":"emacsclient.desktop","name":"Emacs (Client)"}
// handlr get text/org --json | jq
{
  "cmd": "sh -c if [ -n \\\\$*\\ ]; then exec /usr/bin/emacsclient --alternate-editor= --reuse-frame \\\\$@\\; else exec emacsclient --alternate-editor= --create-frame; fi sh",
  "handler": "emacsclient.desktop",
  "name": "Emacs (Client)"
}

# /usr/share/applications/emacsclient.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Emacs (Client)
GenericName=Text Editor
Comment=Edit text
MimeType=text/english;text/plain;text/x-makefile;text/x-c++hdr;text/x-c++src;text/x-chdr;text/x-csrc;text/x-java;text/x-moc;text/x-pascal;text/x-tcl;text/x-tex;application/x-shellscript;text/x-c;text/x-c++;x-scheme-handler/org-protocol;
Exec=sh -c "if [ -n \\"\\$*\\" ]; then exec /usr/bin/emacsclient --alternate-editor= --reuse-frame \\"\\$@\\"; else exec emacsclient --alternate-editor= --create-frame; fi" sh %F
Icon=emacs
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Categories=Development;TextEditor;
StartupNotify=true
StartupWMClass=Emacs
Keywords=emacsclient;
Actions=new-window;new-instance;

[Desktop Action new-window]
Name=New Window
Exec=/usr/bin/emacsclient --alternate-editor= --create-frame %F

[Desktop Action new-instance]
Name=New Instance
Exec=emacs %F

other applications work as expected

[Anomalocaridid]

Currently, handlr-regex uses the shlex crate to split desktop entries' Exec fields into a list of strings according to shell parsing rules, which is then used to spawn a command.

In theory, this should be as simple as reworking that part to not split the Exec field and use something like the execute crate to turn it into a command directly.

Unfortunately I have been rather busy recently and it might be a bit before I get around to fixing this.

[Anomalocaridid]

@CobaltSpace Sorry for taking so long, but I finally got around to trying to fix this several days ago.

I can confirm it does have something to do with how the Exec field is parsed and how it is messing up the sh command. However, what exactly handlr is doing wrong is harder to pin down than I originally thought and I cannot figure out how to get it to work.

What other file openers does Emacs Client work with?

I am having trouble reverse-engineering what mimeopen is doing differently because I am not very familiar with Perl.

[Anomalocaridid]

After some investigation, to my surprise, xdg-open and mimeo also do not work with Emacs Client. Could you confirm this on your end?

Either way, it will not affect my willingness to fix this, but it would be helpful to confirm that mimeopen is the odd one out in this regard.

[CobaltSpace]

I did some tests, opening org mode files. Here is what worked for me:

$ xdg-open file.org
Opening "file.org" with Emacs (Client)  (text/org)

$ mimeopen file.org
Opening "file.org" with Emacs (Client)  (text/org)

$ gio open file.org

What didn't work:

$ mimeo file.org
sh: line 1: [: missing `]'

$ handlr open file.org

So for some reason xdg-open is working for me but not you.

With further testing, it appears xdg-open sort of breaks without perl-file-mimeinfo, launching a new instance of emacs instead of using the existing one.

[Anomalocaridid]

Hello, sorry for taking a month to get back on this. Did you install Emacs Client through Nix's home-manager?

If so, apparently, this is probably caused by an upstream bug. Apparently, the upstream emacsclient.desktop file is broken, but this can be fixed by setting services.emacs.client.enable = true. I can confirm this fix works on my end, could you try it?

[Anomalocaridid]

I haven't received a response in about a month and as far as I can tell, the problem has been resolved. If anyone still has this problem, feel free to say something and I'll reopen this issue.

[Frestein]

I haven't received a response in about a month and as far as I can tell, the problem has been resolved. If anyone still has this problem, feel free to say something and I'll reopen this issue.

The problem is still relevant, I'm experiencing the same issue. Nothing opens when I select emacsclient.

Arch Linux. Mime config.

[Frestein]

I suspect this may have to do with character escaping in the Exec line

Yep! Works correctly:

Exec=sh -c 'if [ $# -gt 0 ]; then exec /usr/bin/emacsclient --alternate-editor="" --reuse-frame "$@"; else exec emacsclient --alternate-editor="" --create-frame; fi' sh %F

[khaalidrafi]

xdg-open doesn't work either. So, maybe, an upstream issue.