Re: downsides to replacing xfce4-terminal?
On Fri 07 Jan 2022 at 14:46:04 (-0500), Lee wrote:
> On 1/7/22, Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> wrote:
> > On Fri, Jan 07, 2022 at 01:26:22PM -0500, Lee wrote:
> >> so what are the downsides, if any, to replacing
> >> /usr/bin/xfce4-terminal with the one I build from the xfce4-terminal
> >> 0.9.1 source tarball?
> >
> > The biggest obvious flaw in doing this is that your custom local version
> > will be overwritten the next time the xfce4-terminal package is updated.
>
> Flaw or feature.. I see it as a feature :) I'm running Debian Stable,
> so the only reason that xfce4-terminal would be updated is a security
> patch -- correct? I will notice if right-click to paste breaks in
> the terminal, so that's my prompt to get an updated version &
> build/install that.
It's a misfeature when someone else is using the machine too.
OK, there isn't anybody.
Well, you don't have to break the system to get your prompt.
If you're not one to notice the arrival of a new version
(say you've added a number of packages to /usr/local/bin),
then script something so that you are. In my case, that would
be grepping /var/cache/apt/archives when cron automatically
downloads any updated packages, and sending me an email.
> I did the same with another package - it got blown away when I
> upgraded and I'd forgotten about replacing the stock program with my
> later version, so there a minute of WTF? before grabbing the latest &
> greatest, build & install.
>
> > It would be better to put your custom local version in /usr/local/bin
> > instead. This should be before /usr/bin in the PATH variable, so your
> > local version will be preferred by anything that doesn't use an explicit
> > path.
>
> Yeah.. I thought about that and I don't know how to update whatever it
> is that sets the path for the xfce desktop. Hence my question to the
> list - am I missing something? Because done & working is a pretty
> compelling argument against maybe theoretical problems in the future.
>
> > That said, I'm not an XFCE user, so I don't know how XFCE launches the
> > terminal.
>
> me either :)
>
> > If there are pieces of XFCE that use "/usr/bin/xfce4-terminal"
> > instead of "xfce4-terminal" to run the terminal, then that will cause an
> > issue.
>
> right - another unknown. There's a /usr/bin/xfce4-terminal.wrapper
> that starts off with
> #! /usr/bin/perl -w
> #
> # Terminal.wrapper - Debian terminal wrapper script
>
> which I don't know who calls or even why it exists.
You can read it: it appears to shuffle some of the arguments,
like '-display' → '--default-display', and eliminate others,
like '-fn'/'-fg'/'-bg'. Perhaps the options that the DE puts
into the call don't match what the binary expects to be given,
or it's pretending to be a different program.
At the end, it execs a bare 'xfce4-terminal' with the new
argument list, so I presume that would reconsult the $PATH.
Or you could minimise your interference with the Debian version
of the package by editing it, adding the /usr/local/bin/ to the
exec's filename.
Cheers,
David.
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