GNU bug report logs - #23024
ls output quoting (when using --dired switch)

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Daniel Lopez <daniel.lopez999 <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: ls output quoting (when using --dired switch)
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2016 23:35:43 +0000

Hi,

The recent change to the default way that ls renders filenames with 
spaces in (now surrounding them in single quotes) is also happening in 
the presence of this switch:

  -D, --dired                generate output designed for Emacs' dired mode

and it's correspondingly breaking Emacs' dired mode in some 
circumstances. Specifically, it's affecting me when I use dired in Emacs 
to browse files on a remote machine through Emacs' 'Tramp' feature. The 
spaced/quoted files and directories can't be opened or navigated into.

Test case:
- Start Emacs (I'm using the current stable version 24.5.1)
- Find file (C-x C-f) and enter "/ssh:localhost:" (since I'm using 
localhost as an example, you'll need to have a local SSH server running)
- Notice that files or directories with spaces in the name are 
surrounded in quotes, and can't be opened (by putting the cursor on them 
and pressing return)

Whatever one thinks of the default change in general (I disapprove, 
myself; I find the intermittently-appearing quotes disturbing the 
alignment in an "ls -l" and disrupting my flow as a human reader), 
perhaps it should be done in a way that does not disturb other use cases 
that ls also explicitly claims to support.

Daniel

Message #8 received at 23024 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Daniel Lopez <daniel.lopez999 <at> gmail.com>, 23024 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#23024: ls output quoting (when using --dired switch)
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2016 17:07:33 +0000

On 15/03/16 23:35, Daniel Lopez wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The recent change to the default way that ls renders filenames with
> spaces in (now surrounding them in single quotes) is also happening in
> the presence of this switch:
>
>     -D, --dired                generate output designed for Emacs' dired mode
>
> and it's correspondingly breaking Emacs' dired mode in some
> circumstances. Specifically, it's affecting me when I use dired in Emacs
> to browse files on a remote machine through Emacs' 'Tramp' feature. The
> spaced/quoted files and directories can't be opened or navigated into.
>
> Test case:
> - Start Emacs (I'm using the current stable version 24.5.1)
> - Find file (C-x C-f) and enter "/ssh:localhost:" (since I'm using
> localhost as an example, you'll need to have a local SSH server running)
> - Notice that files or directories with spaces in the name are
> surrounded in quotes, and can't be opened (by putting the cursor on them
> and pressing return)
>
> Whatever one thinks of the default change in general (I disapprove,
> myself; I find the intermittently-appearing quotes disturbing the
> alignment in an "ls -l" and disrupting my flow as a human reader),
> perhaps it should be done in a way that does not disturb other use cases
> that ls also explicitly claims to support.

Right, we shouldn't mess with quoting in --dired mode.
I'll fix it up shortly.

thanks,
Pádraig

Message #11 received at 23024 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Daniel Lopez <daniel.lopez999 <at> gmail.com>, 23024 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#23024: ls output quoting (when using --dired switch)
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2016 21:23:47 +0100

On 16/03/16 17:07, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> On 15/03/16 23:35, Daniel Lopez wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> The recent change to the default way that ls renders filenames with
>> spaces in (now surrounding them in single quotes) is also happening in
>> the presence of this switch:
>>
>>     -D, --dired                generate output designed for Emacs' dired mode
>>
>> and it's correspondingly breaking Emacs' dired mode in some
>> circumstances. Specifically, it's affecting me when I use dired in Emacs
>> to browse files on a remote machine through Emacs' 'Tramp' feature. The
>> spaced/quoted files and directories can't be opened or navigated into.
>>
>> Test case:
>> - Start Emacs (I'm using the current stable version 24.5.1)
>> - Find file (C-x C-f) and enter "/ssh:localhost:" (since I'm using
>> localhost as an example, you'll need to have a local SSH server running)
>> - Notice that files or directories with spaces in the name are
>> surrounded in quotes, and can't be opened (by putting the cursor on them
>> and pressing return)
>>
>> Whatever one thinks of the default change in general (I disapprove,
>> myself; I find the intermittently-appearing quotes disturbing the
>> alignment in an "ls -l" and disrupting my flow as a human reader),
>> perhaps it should be done in a way that does not disturb other use cases
>> that ls also explicitly claims to support.
> 
> Right, we shouldn't mess with quoting in --dired mode.
> I'll fix it up shortly.

On further analysis I see that --dired mode already distinguishes
the quoting-style in its output.  Also we had already documented
that --dired should specify a --quoting-style to get consistent output.
Also this looks to have been fixed already in emacs:
https://github.com/emacs-mirror/emacs/commit/e4adb6

That handles all cases as well as users having QUOTING_STYLE
set in their environment with versions of ls prior to 8.24.

Therefore I'm inclined to leave this behavior as is.

thanks,
Pádraig

Message #14 received at 23024 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Assaf Gordon <assafgordon <at> gmail.com>
To: 23024 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#23024: ls output quoting (when using --dired switch)
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2018 10:09:47 -0600

close 23024
stop

(triaging old bugs)

On Wed, Sep 28, 2016 at 09:23:47PM +0100, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> On 16/03/16 17:07, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> > On 15/03/16 23:35, Daniel Lopez wrote:
> >>
> >> The recent change to the default way that ls renders filenames with
> >> spaces in (now surrounding them in single quotes) is also happening in
> >> the presence of this switch:
> >>
> > Right, we shouldn't mess with quoting in --dired mode.
> 
> On further analysis I see that --dired mode already distinguishes
> the quoting-style in its output.  Also we had already documented
> that --dired should specify a --quoting-style to get consistent output.
> Also this looks to have been fixed already in emacs:
> https://github.com/emacs-mirror/emacs/commit/e4adb6
> 
> Therefore I'm inclined to leave this behavior as is.
> 

With no further comments in 2 years, I'm closing this bug.

-assaf

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