Show stderr when :sh command fails

[n0s4]

If I try to, say, cargo run in helix and the command fails I am not given any description why. Why can't helix show the stderr output in the same way as it shows stdout when the command succeeds?

Could we also make it possible to show stderr when the command does not fail? cargo check for instance prints its output to stderr so is not accessible from inside Helix.

[the-mikedavis]

It looks like the stderr is not totally discarded, just kicked out to the log file:

helix/helix-term/src/commands.rs

Lines 4381 to 4383 in 4a27e2d

	if !output.stderr.is_empty() {
	log::error!("Shell error: {}", String::from_utf8_lossy(&output.stderr));
	}

. I'm not sure there's a good way to display it in the UI currently: it could be put in-line with the stdout input styled red but that wouldn't be a trivial change looking at how run_shell_command and shell_impl are implemented.

In general I think a dedicated terminal would fit this workflow better, either through tmux/screen/zellij or #1976. There are some cases where you will want to see the full error message of cargo check for some extended time, or run a long-running command async that fit better in a terminal pane than in a popup within helix.

[r-odriguez]

A horizontal split with a scratch buffer similar to what log does could be a good approach