fd dependency checks

[arigit]

Ubuntu average user here. I found the extension in the ulauncher site.

It took me a while to realize that there was a dependency with 'fd', there was no message about this in the ulauncher extension site.

Suggestion #1: if the extension can't find a "proper" fd in the path, can a message be displayed in the ulauncher results, asking to install the package.

And then: in ubuntu, typing "fd" in the command line, bash suggests to install the package "fdclone", which provides fd, however this fd is totally unrelated to finding files. It took me another 10 minutes to figure this out.

What needed to be installed was the package "fd-find" and then, on top of that, a symbolic link is needed because debian changed the executable name to "fdfind" instead of fd. Another 10 minutes to figure this out.

Suggestion #2: please support both binary names: fd or fdfind, whatever is in the path and works

For ubuntu, Suggestion #1 could ask for installation of the "fd-find" package and Suggestion #2 could default to "fdfind" as the name of the binary

Or: just add a configuration option for the binary name and include there the explanations of what package need to be installed

[thob]

to chime in here. I'm on MX Linux 19 (Debian). I set alias alias fd=fdfind in bashrc. fd works fine in the cli but not with ulauncher.

[cspipaon]

Same issue here on Pop!_OS 19.10. I tried setting alias fd=fdfind in bashrc as well without any result in Ulauncher.

[liuhaowen478]

For @thob and @cspipaon, what you need is more than aliasing. Try sudo ln -s /usr/bin/fdfind /usr/bin/fd .

[thob]

hmm, I had it working on Ubuntu 18.04. Then it stopped all of a sudden. I got fd and it works on the CLI but for some reason stopped working in Ulauncher

[lunacd]

It would be helpful it you elaborate on "stopped working."

[thob]

it doesn't find anything, shows 'loading'

[lunacd]

If it worked before and it stopped working, it is most probably because of my patch. But this is indeed weird. You are using Ubuntu so I'm assuming you had both fd and fdfind working in CLI?

[thob]

fd yes, fdfind I don't have

[lunacd]

Well I cannot reproduce this issue. On my machine (Ubuntu 20.04), it worked with either fd or fdfind or both. Can you fire up your python3 and try:

import subprocess
subprocess.check_call(['fd'])

(That is how my patch checks for fd)

[thob]

this works

[lunacd]

This is getting weird and I'm running out of hypothesis. Could you remove and reinstall the plugin?

[thob]

I did that before

[lunacd]

I'm not familiar with python so I really don't see how can something work interactively but not in a script. As a last resort, can you just create a link fdfind to fd and try again?

[thob]

you mean sudo ln -s /usr/bin/fdfind /usr/bin/fd

[thob]

I get ln: failed to create symbolic link '/usr/bin/fd': File exists

[lunacd]

Oh you would flip it, you are creating the missing fdfind.

[thob]

hmm, I don't have fdfind

[lunacd]

Yes and you are creating it. Read the man page for ln. The second parameter is the link you are creating. That is what I meant by "flip it".