Bug#784909: x11-common: /etc/X11/Xsession.d/20x11-common_process-args should not pass -geometry to x-terminal-emulator

[Faheem Mitha <faheem@faheem.info>]

Package: x11-common
Version: 1:7.7+7
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

While debugging a recent upgrade to jessie, I tried logging in with
the failsafe option. This apparently just starts up a terminal
specifically the terminal currently set in `x-terminal-emulator`. In
my particular case, `x-terminal-emulator` was set to the terminator
program.

However, in this instance, this login attempt exited with an error,
namely:

    x-terminal-emulator: error: Additional unexpected arguments found: ['+1+1']

As Gilles on Unix & Linux Stack Exchange Chat (unix.stackexchange.com)
explained to me, the problem was that
/etc/X11/Xsession.d/20x11-common_process-args assumes that
x-terminal-emulator understands -geometry.

See the following extract from /etc/X11/Xsession.d/20x11-common_process-args:

    # Failsafe session was requested.
    if has_option allow-failsafe; then
      if [ -e /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator ]; then
        if [ -x /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator ]; then
          exec x-terminal-emulator -geometry +1+1

However, terminator doesn't understand this option.

    terminator -geometry +1+1
    Usage: terminator [options]

    terminator: error: Additional unexpected arguments found: ['+1+1']

Though it does understand

    terminator --geometry +1+1

However, Policy (11.8.3 Packages providing a terminal emulator) only
says

To be an x-terminal-emulator, a program must:

    Be able to emulate a DEC VT100 terminal, or a compatible terminal.

    Support the command-line option -e command, which creates a new
    terminal window[106] and runs the specified command, interpreting the
    entirety of the rest of the command line as a command to pass straight
    to exec, in the manner that xterm does.

    Support the command-line option -T title, which creates a new terminal
    window with the window title title.

So this looks like a bug.

                                            Regards, Faheem

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 8.0
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'oldstable-updates'), (500, 'stable'), (500, 'oldstable'), (50, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/6 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages x11-common depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]  1.5.56
ii  lsb-base               4.1+Debian13+nmu1

x11-common recommends no packages.

x11-common suggests no packages.

-- debconf information:
  x11-common/xwrapper/allowed_users: Console Users Only
  x11-common/xwrapper/actual_allowed_users: console