Re: x-terminal-emulator does not appear to accept comand line args

[Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com>]

On Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:46:54 +0100, Dom wrote:

> On 09/06/11 17:32, Camaleón wrote:
>> On Thu, 09 Jun 2011 14:58:02 +0000, Camaleón wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, 09 Jun 2011 07:21:58 -0700, briand wrote:
>>>
>>>> There's still a bug, as the man page brings up the man page/options
>>>> for gnome-terminal which uses "--geometry=".
>>>
>>> I think there is no bug... let' see:
>>>
>>> sm01@stt008:~$ grep help /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator
>>>      elsif ($opt eq '-h' || $opt eq '--help')
>>> 	push(@args, '--help');
>>>
>>> The "help" command from "x-terminal-emulator" accepts both arguments,
>>> "- h" and "--help") ;-)
>>
>> Err... after re-reading my response I think I've completely lost my
>> bearings (I don't know how in hell I linked the "--help" parameter with
>> the man page, sorry).
>>
>> Anyway, I think "gnome-terminal" does not have to share the same
>> arguments than "x-terminal-emulator" so IMO, still no bug (yes, the man
>> page launched is the one of "gnome-terminal" but that's the expected
>> because in the end the perl script points to "gnome-terminal" binary or
>> whatever terminal the user has setup as default).
> 
> Actually the perl script in this case only points to "gnome-terminal",
> nothing else.

Hum... it really points to the wrapper, not to "gnome-terminal" binary:

stt008:~# LANG=POSIX update-alternatives --display x-terminal-emulator
x-terminal-emulator - status is auto.
 link currently points to /usr/bin/gnome-terminal.wrapper
/usr/bin/xterm - priority 20
 slave x-terminal-emulator.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/xterm.1.gz
/usr/bin/uxterm - priority 20
 slave x-terminal-emulator.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/uxterm.1.gz
/usr/bin/koi8rxterm - priority 20
 slave x-terminal-emulator.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/koi8rxterm.1.gz
/usr/bin/lxterm - priority 30
 slave x-terminal-emulator.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/lxterm.1.gz
/usr/bin/gnome-terminal.wrapper - priority 40
 slave x-terminal-emulator.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/gnome-terminal.1.gz
Current `best' version is /usr/bin/gnome-terminal.wrapper.

So the questions would be... what's the main role of the wrapper and why 
"alternatives" is not pointing to the full binary instead?

> "x-terminal-emulator" is a symlink to
> "/etc/alternatives/x-terminal-emulator", which is a symlink to the perl
> script "/usr/bin/gnome-terminal.wrapper".

Yep. 
 
> I think that as the wrapper is translating x-terminal options to
> gnome-terminal equivalents, it shouldn't pass through "-h" or "--help",
> but should display a basic usage page for the options that *it* accepts.
>
> Therefore I consider this to be a bug (albeit minor in nature). I just
> use the native gnome-terminal options anyway.

I don't know why but something tells me that there must be a good reason 
for the wrapper behaving in that way, differently than the full binary.

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón