what(): Malformed file (Koofr)

[ariealerr]

Searched through the issues and couldn't find this anywhere.

Recently ran pacman -Syu to update packages, and then j4-dmenu-desktop stopped working. I believe j4dd was updated with the rest of the packages.

> j4-dmenu-desktop
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::runtime_error'
  what(): Malformed file
fish: Job 1, 'j4-dmenu-desktop' terminated by signal SIGABRT (Abort)

The j4dd menu appears as normal, but nothing is listed. I can include binaries the same way as listed in the README, but trying to run them does nothing.

Things I've tried:

• Reinstalling j4dd
• Building j4dd myself
• Rebuilding dmenu

EndeavourOS
6.10.2-arch1-2

I'm assuming the problem lies somewhere in my packages or my system configurations, and not in j4dd. I don't sync nearly often enough as I should. Not sure what to do about it though, nothing else has been affected by the update as far as I've noticed.

[meator]

Can you please post debug output (using the --log-level DEBUG flag)?

[linnabraham]

I had the same issue. When I used @meator 's suggestion, I could easily find the problematic desktop file. It belonged to a cloud service which I had recently uninstalled. But the desktop file was still around since it didn't have a proper uninstaller. Removing the file solved my problem.

[linnabraham]

On a different machine where I had the application still installed, I get the same error.
This is the relevant part of the output with logging enabled.

Renaming this desktop file solves the issue. But then I won't be able to use the desktop launcher.

[2024-08-11 14:17:51.641] [debug] [main.cc:1362]    /usr/share/applications/carta.desktop
[2024-08-11 14:17:51.641] [debug] [main.cc:1362]    /usr/share/applications/electron28.desktop
[2024-08-11 14:17:51.641] [debug] [main.cc:1362]    /usr/share/applications/obsidian.desktop
[2024-08-11 14:17:51.641] [debug] [main.cc:1362]    /usr/share/applications/djvusmooth.desktop
[2024-08-11 14:17:51.642] [debug] [main.cc:1367] Found 1 locale suffixes:
[2024-08-11 14:17:51.642] [debug] [main.cc:1369]  C
[2024-08-11 14:17:51.642] [debug] [AppManager.cc:74] AppManager: Entered AppManager
[2024-08-11 14:17:51.642] [debug] [AppManager.cc:89] AppManager: Processing rank -> 0 <- (base: /home/linn/.local/share/applications/)
[2024-08-11 14:17:51.642] [debug] [AppManager.cc:95] AppManager:   Handling file '/home/linn/.local/share/applications/appimagekit-pcloud.desktop' ID: appimagekit-pcloud.desktop
[2024-08-11 14:17:51.642] [debug] [AppManager.cc:95] AppManager:   Handling file '/home/linn/.local/share/applications/koofr.desktop' ID: koofr.desktop
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::runtime_error'
  what():  Malformed file.
zsh: IOT instruction (core dumped)  j4-dmenu-desktop --log-level=DEBUG

Content of the desktop file in question

[Desktop Entry]
  Name=Koofr
  GenericName=Hybrid storage cloud
  Exec=/home/linn/.koofr-dist/storagegui
  Terminal=false
  Type=Application
  Icon=/home/linn/.koofr-dist/icon.png
  Categories=Network;FileTransfer;Internet;

[meator]

Desktop files may not contain spaces before the key. I believe this is against the Desktop entry specification. Please ask Koofr to fix their desktop file. You can remove the whitespace before all keys to fix it:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Koofr
GenericName=Hybrid storage cloud
Exec=/home/linn/.koofr-dist/storagegui
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=/home/linn/.koofr-dist/icon.png
Categories=Network;FileTransfer;Internet;

Desktop files with invalid key=value pairs should now get treated the same as other types of invalid desktop files. j4-dmenu-desktop built from the develop branch should print a warning about the faulty desktop file, skip it and continue working instead of aborting.

[ariealerr]

Can you please post debug output (using the --log-level DEBUG flag)?

Thanks! That helped identify the issue. One of the desktop files were indeed causing errors, but for me not by Koofr.

[meator]

@Swexti Would you mind posting the faulty desktop file here?

[ariealerr]

@Swexti Would you mind posting the faulty desktop file here?

Sorry, I removed the desktop file. I can't remember what it was.