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

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