edit-with-external-editor does not work with trailing space in $VISUAL

[brosasaki]

Describe the bug
edit-with-external-editor does not work when $VISUAL (therefore external-editor-program) is set to emacsclient: it creates a new buffer, but saving that buffer or typing 'C-x C-#' does not enter the text you typed.

Also, there are various errors if $VISUAL has arguments, e.g. for 'emacsclient --timeout=3 --create-frame --', the command fails with the following message:

<WARN> [06:32:06] Warning: Failed editing: Subprocess #&lt;UIOP/LAUNCH-PROGRAM:PROCESS-INFO {100A7E4013}&gt;
 with command (&quot;emacsclient&quot; &quot;--timeout=3&quot; &quot;--create-frame&quot; &quot;--&quot; &quot;&quot;
               &quot;/home/wong/.local/share/nyxt/tmpT1XM84SD.tmp&quot;)
 exited with error code 1. See `external-editor-program' slot.

'emacsclient --create-frame --':

<WARN> [06:35:03] Warning: Failed editing: Couldn't execute &quot;~/.guix-home/profile/bin/emacsclient&quot;: No such file or directory. See `external-editor-program' slot.

I also noticed that with $VISUAL set to 'emacs', the text is not entered until emacs exits. My guess is that nyxt wrongly assumes that editing is complete when the process exits, and since emacsclient doesn't really "exit", the text is never entered.

Precise recipe to reproduce the issue
emacs --bg-daemon; VISUAL=emacsclient nyxt, then execute edit-with-external-editor when in an input field. Type in the opened buffer, then type C-x C-# to finish editing. Notice how the text is not input.

For website-specific issues:
Can you reproduce this issue with Epiphany / GNOME Web (https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Web)?

Information

• OS name+version: GNU Guix d48da2d (channel aadcg cb6faa5)
• Graphics card and driver: AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX, radv Mesa 24.3.2
• Desktop environment / Window manager name+version: Hyprland 0.47.0
• Installation method (Flatpak, Guix, package manager, build from source): Guix, package aadcg-nyxt
• Output of nyxt --system-information:

Nyxt version: 3.12.0
Renderer: GI-GTK
Operating system kernel: Linux 6.12.11
Lisp implementation: SBCL 2.4.10 (Dynamic space size: 3221225472)
Features: (:NYXT-GI-GTK :NYXT-GTK :NYXT-GI-GTK :NYXT-GTK :NYXT-3.12 :NYXT-3 :NYXT-3.12.0
 :CLIPBOARD-CONTENT-METHOD :SWANK :SLYNK :PLUMP-UTF-32 :PARENSCRIPT :NSYMBOLS
 :FSET-EXT-STRINGS :SBCL+SAFE-STANDARD-READTABLE :NAMED-READTABLES :GLOBAL-VARS
 :CL-FAD :LPARALLEL :21BIT-CHARS :CUSTOM-HASH-TABLE-NATIVE :CL-PPCRE-UNICODE
 :CL-UNICODE :CL-JSON-DOUBLE-FLOAT-IS-SUBSUMED
 :CL-JSON-SINGLE-FLOAT-IS-SUBSUMED :CHUNGA :FLEXI-STREAMS :CL-PPCRE :WEBKIT2
 :WEBKIT-2.44.1 :WEBKIT-2.44 :WEBKIT-2 :WEBKIT2-CORS-ALLOWLIST
 :WEBKIT2-PASTE-PLAINTEXT :WEBKIT2-TRACKING :WEBKIT2-MUTE :WEBKIT2-EMOJI
 :WEBKIT2-MEDIA :WEBKIT2-SANDBOXING :GTK-3-22 :GTK-3-20 :GTK-3-18 :GTK-3-16
 :GTK-3-14 :GTK-3-12 :GTK-3-10 :GTK-3-8 :GTK-3-6 :GTK-3-4 :GTK :GDK-3-22
 :GDK-3-20 :GDK-3-18 :GDK-3-16 :GDK-3-14 :GDK-3-12 :GDK-3-10 :GDK-3-8 :GDK-3-6
 :GDK-3-4 :CAIRO-1-10 :CAIRO-1-12 :GDK-PIXBUF :CLOSER-MOP :GLIB-2-30 :GLIB-2-32
 :GLIB-2-34 :GLIB-2-36 :GLIB-2-38 :GLIB-2-40 :GLIB-2-42 :GLIB-2-44 :GLIB-2-46
 :GLIB-2-48 :GLIB-2-50 :GLIB-2-52 :GLIB-2-54 :GLIB-2-56 :GLIB-2-58 :GLIB
 :BORDEAUX-THREADS :LPARALLEL.WITH-CLTL2 :LPARALLEL.WITH-CAS
 :LPARALLEL.WITH-STEALING-SCHEDULER :SPLIT-SEQUENCE
 CFFI-FEATURES:FLAT-NAMESPACE CFFI-FEATURES:X86-64 CFFI-FEATURES:UNIX :CFFI
 CFFI-SYS::FLAT-NAMESPACE ALEXANDRIA::SEQUENCE-EMPTYP :FAST-IO-SV :FAST-IO
 :CL-JSON-CLOS :CL-JSON :SBCL-USES-SB-ROTATE-BYTE CHIPZ-SYSTEM:GRAY-STREAMS
 :THREAD-SUPPORT :ASDF3.3 :ASDF3.2 :ASDF3.1 :ASDF3 :ASDF2 :ASDF :OS-UNIX
 :NON-BASE-CHARS-EXIST-P :ASDF-UNICODE :ARENA-ALLOCATOR :X86-64 :GENCGC :64-BIT
 :ANSI-CL :COMMON-LISP :ELF :IEEE-FLOATING-POINT :LINUX :LITTLE-ENDIAN
 :PACKAGE-LOCAL-NICKNAMES :SB-CORE-COMPRESSION :SB-LDB :SB-PACKAGE-LOCKS
 :SB-THREAD :SB-UNICODE :SBCL :UNIX)

ASDF version: 3.3.7
ASDF registries: (NYXT-SOURCE-REGISTRY ENVIRONMENT-SOURCE-REGISTRY)
Critical dependencies: (/tmp/guix-build-aadcg-nyxt-3.12.0.drv-0/source/_build/cl-cffi-gtk/gtk/cl-cffi-gtk.asd
 /tmp/guix-build-aadcg-nyxt-3.12.0.drv-0/source/_build/cl-gobject-introspection/cl-gobject-introspection.asd
 /tmp/guix-build-aadcg-nyxt-3.12.0.drv-0/source/_build/cl-webkit/webkit2/cl-webkit2.asd)

Guix version:

Output when started from a shell

guix 🮲🮳 nyxt -I
Nyxt version 3.12.0
<INFO> [05:53:09] Source location: #P"/gnu/store/hd7mgl09glflizslbvjn5qffgdjbi349-aadcg-nyxt-3.12.0/share/nyxt/"
<INFO> [05:53:09] Nyxt already started.
guix 🮲🮳 nyxt
Nyxt version 3.12.0
<INFO> [05:53:25] Source location: #P"/gnu/store/hd7mgl09glflizslbvjn5qffgdjbi349-aadcg-nyxt-3.12.0/share/nyxt/"
<INFO> [05:53:25] Loading Lisp file #P"/home/wong/.config/nyxt/auto-config.3.lisp".
<INFO> [05:53:25] Loading Lisp file #P"/home/wong/.config/nyxt/config.lisp".
<INFO> [05:53:25] Listening to socket: #P"/run/user/1000/nyxt/nyxt.socket"

(process:2): Gtk-WARNING **: 10:53:26.125: Locale not supported by C library.
        Using the fallback 'C' locale.

(WebKitWebProcess:2): Gdk-WARNING **: 10:53:26.129: Failed to read portal settings: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: No such interface ?org.freedesktop.portal.Settings? on object at path /org/freedesktop/portal/desktop
<INFO> [05:53:26] Loading #P"/home/wong/.local/share/nyxt/history/default.lisp".

(process:2): Gtk-WARNING **: 10:53:26.645: Locale not supported by C library.
        Using the fallback 'C' locale.

(WebKitWebProcess:2): Gdk-WARNING **: 10:53:26.648: Failed to read portal settings: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: No such interface ?org.freedesktop.portal.Settings? on object at path /org/freedesktop/portal/desktop
<INFO> [05:53:26] Loading #P"/home/wong/.local/share/nyxt/auto-rules.lisp".
<INFO> [05:53:26] Loading #P"/home/wong/.local/share/nyxt/hostlist-stevenblack.txt".
<INFO> [05:53:26] Restoring 6 buffers from history.

(process:2): Gtk-WARNING **: 10:53:27.435: Locale not supported by C library.
        Using the fallback 'C' locale.

(WebKitWebProcess:2): Gdk-WARNING **: 10:53:27.437: Failed to read portal settings: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: No such interface ?org.freedesktop.portal.Settings? on object at path /org/freedesktop/portal/desktop
<INFO> [05:53:27] Loading "https://github.com/Novum/vkQuake/issues/769".

(process:2): Gtk-WARNING **: 10:53:27.595: Locale not supported by C library.
        Using the fallback 'C' locale.

(WebKitWebProcess:2): Gdk-WARNING **: 10:53:27.598: Failed to read portal settings: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: No such interface ?org.freedesktop.portal.Settings? on object at path /org/freedesktop/portal/desktop
<INFO> [05:53:28] Deleting socket #P"/run/user/1000/nyxt/nyxt.socket".

[aadcg]

Can you share the output of echo $VISUAL and which emacsclient?

[brosasaki]

~ 🮲🮳 echo $VISUAL
emacsclient --timeout=3 --create-frame --
~ 🮲🮳 which emacsclient
/home/wong/.guix-home/profile/bin/emacsclient

[aadcg]

I can't reproduce any of these reports. I set external-editor-program to emacsclient -r.

$ echo $VISUAL
emacsclient -r

---

Note that you need to hit C-x # from Emacs, not C-x C-#. Saving the buffer doesn't work since you need to signal that you're done editing.

[brosasaki]

I've figured it out!
Try between these two commands:

1. EDITOR='emacsclient --timeout=3 --tty -- ' nyxt
2. EDITOR='emacsclient --timeout=3 --tty --' nyxt
   Command 1 gives a nyxt session that cannot launch an external editor:

WARN - Warning: Failed editing: Subprocess #<UIOP/LAUNCH-PROGRAM:PROCESS-INFO {100AEC4133}>
 with command ("emacsclient" "--timeout=3" "--create-frame" "--" ""
               "/home/wong/.local/share/nyxt/tmpT1XM84SD.tmp")
 exited with error code 1. See `external-editor-program' slot.

...while command 2 does not have such an issue. Though it's a mistake on my part to configure EDITOR that way, should trailing space be significant for such a thing?