GNU bug report logs - #59825
[PATCH] gnu: Add flatpak-xdg-utils.

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

From: John Kehayias <john.kehayias <at> protonmail.com>
To: Guix-patches <guix-patches <at> gnu.org>
Subject: [PATCH] gnu: Add flatpak-xdg-utils.
Date: Sun, 04 Dec 2022 22:15:23 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi Guix,

Here is a little package from the Flatpak folks which is also useful in a guix shell container. This lets you run, for example, xdg-open in the container and it will open on the host side. So let's say you come across a URL, you can just use xdg-open from this package so it will open in the host's web browser, rather than trying in the container. This relies on having portals on the host side, like xdg-desktop-portal-gtk.

Here is a simple test example:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
guix shell -NC flatpak-xdg-utils --preserve='^DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS$' -- xdg-open "<https://guix.gnu.org>"
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

which will open Guix's website on the host side.

I've checked it works, the license (some files LGPL2+ other LGPL2.1+), linted, and styled. I adjusted the description from upstream slightly to indicate it is not just for Flatpak sandboxes.

Thanks!
John

[0001-gnu-Add-flatpak-xdg-utils.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

Message #8 received at 59825 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: John Kehayias <john.kehayias <at> protonmail.com>
Cc: 59825 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#59825: [PATCH] gnu: Add flatpak-xdg-utils.
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2022 11:00:11 +0100

Hi!

John Kehayias <john.kehayias <at> protonmail.com> skribis:

> Here is a little package from the Flatpak folks which is also useful in a guix shell container. This lets you run, for example, xdg-open in the container and it will open on the host side. So let's say you come across a URL, you can just use xdg-open from this package so it will open in the host's web browser, rather than trying in the container. This relies on having portals on the host side, like xdg-desktop-portal-gtk.
>
> Here is a simple test example:
>
> guix shell -NC flatpak-xdg-utils --preserve='^DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS$' -- xdg-open "<https://guix.gnu.org>"
>
> which will open Guix's website on the host side.

Interesting (and scary as well, depending on how it’s implemented).

Don’t you need to share /tmp as well?  ‘DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS’ refers
to a socket in /tmp for me.

> From 8669a7fb0e1b9ba320c6312d7423500a56236edc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: John Kehayias <john.kehayias <at> protonmail.com>
> Date: Sun, 4 Dec 2022 17:06:19 -0500
> Subject: [PATCH] gnu: Add flatpak-xdg-utils.
>
> * gnu/packages/freedesktop.scm (flatpak-xdg-utils): New variable.

<https://qa.guix.gnu.org/issue/59825> mentions a build failure on
i686-linux; could you take a look?

Apart from that, it LGTM!

Thanks,
Ludo’.

Message #11 received at 59825 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: John Kehayias <john.kehayias <at> protonmail.com>
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 59825 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#59825: [PATCH] gnu: Add flatpak-xdg-utils.
Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2022 05:54:20 +0000

Howdy,

On Wed, Dec 14, 2022 at 11:00 AM, Ludovic Courtès wrote:

> Hi!
>
> John Kehayias <john.kehayias <at> protonmail.com> skribis:
>
>> Here is a little package from the Flatpak folks which is also useful in a guix shell
>> container. This lets you run, for example, xdg-open in the container and it will open on
>> the host side. So let's say you come across a URL, you can just use xdg-open from this
>> package so it will open in the host's web browser, rather than trying in the container.
>> This relies on having portals on the host side, like xdg-desktop-portal-gtk.
>>
>> Here is a simple test example:
>>
>> guix shell -NC flatpak-xdg-utils --preserve='^DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS$' -- xdg-open
>> "<https://guix.gnu.org>"
>>
>> which will open Guix's website on the host side.
>
> Interesting (and scary as well, depending on how it’s implemented).
>

Yes, a bit of both! The scary one I think is 'flatpak-spawn' which will run something on the host, but as this is done via portals there's some control there over what it implements and how. I don't know the details though, but I did see checks somewhere for what checking what is allowed to be accessed.

e.g. with guix shell -NC flatpak-xdg-utils --preserve='^DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS$' -- flatpak-spawn --host ls /

So yeah, punching holes in a sandbox. Anyway...

> Don’t you need to share /tmp as well?  ‘DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS’ refers
> to a socket in /tmp for me.
>

It does point to something in /tmp for me as well, but which doesn't exist...not sure the details of DBus, which I always find confusing.

Note the -N argument, that was key for me to get it working easily. Without that and even sharing /tmp it didn't work, nor if I tried manually adding files that -N adds. So it must be something else about the network option that gets access to the DBus socket?

>> From 8669a7fb0e1b9ba320c6312d7423500a56236edc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
>> From: John Kehayias <john.kehayias <at> protonmail.com>
>> Date: Sun, 4 Dec 2022 17:06:19 -0500
>> Subject: [PATCH] gnu: Add flatpak-xdg-utils.
>>
>> * gnu/packages/freedesktop.scm (flatpak-xdg-utils): New variable.
>
> <https://qa.guix.gnu.org/issue/59825> mentions a build failure on
> i686-linux; could you take a look?
>

Took me a bit to figure out the logs, but looks like some issue on the build server as in the configure phase I see:

WARNING: Could not create compilation database.

Locally it has built fine, for the same derivation hash as well.

> Apart from that, it LGTM!
>

Great! I'll add it to my early lists of commits I'll make, once I finally get a breather here.

> Thanks,
> Ludo’.

And thank you!

John

Message #14 received at 59825 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: John Kehayias <john.kehayias <at> protonmail.com>
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 59825-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org, 59825 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#59825: [PATCH] gnu: Add flatpak-xdg-utils.
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2023 17:35:25 +0000

Pushed as 2f0418cd2c33497130e1b764952e8063117d7f8a (my first commit!)

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