GVFS Thread -- split from Things that... Grrr

gearhead · 2018-03-28 13:33:47

(Edit: For context, this thread was split from the Things that make you go grrr thread. So, the thing that made Gearhead go grrr was...)

The fact that gvfs is so broken and has been for so long. My gripe is that the only tasks you can do with a gvfs mount are in nautilus. Any other apps are unaware and cannot be made aware of the mount. I believe this is because of all the illegal characters (:@) in the link. Try to run any QT or Wine app or firefoxand actually use that mount. Yes, I know it can be mounted manually from the cli or from fstab, but, why?!? Try do drag a picture from a gvfs mount (sftp, smb, etc) to an open gmail compose window in firefox. I have a git repository on a remote machine and have to manually mount it to use github desktop to work on that repository. Back 5 years ago or so, the gvfs mounts were in your home directory under .gvfs and all you needed was a symlink to actually use the directories which it mounted. Now, they are mounted in the rootfs with these unintelligible (to any other GUI program) folder names. It really should work like Windows in this way. If a folder is showing in the file explorer (Nautilus), you should be able to use it in another application. Even the old work around was fine.

This issue is my biggest pet peeve with Linux in general and nobody on gnome development even thinks it is a bug. If all your files are on your local computer, it is not an issue, but increasingly, files is on multiple computers, cameras, phones, NAS, raspberryPis, etc...

Last edited by ewaller (2018-03-28 16:47:20)

Trilby · 2018-03-28 13:55:48

That doesn't sound like a gvfs bug, it sounds like a bug in all those other programs you only indirectly refer to that can't handle @ characters in a path name.

Admittedly, using unusual characters in path/file names should just be avoided, and I'd consider it poor design (but not a bug) for gcfs to use them extensively/intentionally. But despite your claim, these are not illegal characters for path/filenames. Any program that chokes on ugly but legal/valid file names should be fixed as that's where the bug is.

Last edited by Trilby (2018-03-28 13:56:05)

seth · 2018-03-28 14:01:37

any QT or Wine app or firefox

Seems to be quite some broken programs.
What's an actual URI causing trouble? And: is the remote path actually mounted to that local path or is it rather a "smb://foo:password@bar.com/" URI?

gearhead · 2018-03-28 14:57:13

Seth,

My guess is the "smb://foo:password@bar.com/" that seems to confuse the programs. I am at work, now and cannot copy/paste what happens, but if you try to drag a picture mounted as any fuse mount to gmail compose (gdrive, upload, etc) in any browser, it just bounces back, If you ctrl-c, ctrl-v, it pastes the link which is useless. Wine is similar. You cannot see any files mounted via fuse to edit them (used to be able to via a sym link, but no more). I thought Github Desktop (for Linux) would actually work as it allows that URI in the 'remote folder' dialog box, but cannot actually act on it. It just errors out and I am guessing it is the same reason (maybe permissions or possibly the illegal characters). My guess it is easier to fix gvfs than all the other programs and interfaces which rely on it, but my bug report has not even been flagged as anything for over a year. I will see what I can post when I get home. It is quite frustrating and strange that no-one else has run into it or complains about it. Been borked for years and I've been copying locally and editing as a work around. This is a big Grrr for me!

eschwartz · 2018-03-28 15:05:49

That's not a fuse mount. It's a network URI which could be interpreted by select software to create a fuse mount.

Obviously if there is no directory anywhere then software which does not implement smb networking cannot use the link. Even if there is a directory somewhere you'd need to give the directory path rather than the smb:// link.

fuse mounts would be represented by file:/// for which the fuse program would intercept filesystem calls to tell the filesystem what is there. smb:// is a completely different protocol, just like http:// git:// ftp:// and many others.

Last edited by eschwartz (2018-03-28 15:09:07)

gearhead · 2018-03-28 16:34:32

Ok, maybe I do not describe the underpinnings correctly, but I maintain that if a folder show up as 'available' in a file browser it is normal to expect that all programs will be able to interact with the files and folders which appear in that browser. Is this not a normal expectation? Am I crazy, here?

I'm definitely Interested in learning if there is a work around for this behavior and also what exactly I am describing. If it isn't gvfs which 'mounts' and 'shows' files for the UI/File browser and fuse that underpins that? Please educate me on this. I know the one work-around is to explicitly mount it with a mount command and provide a mount point, but is there another one?

eschwartz · 2018-03-28 17:00:06

https://developer.gnome.org/gio/stable/ch01.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GVfs

Gvfs is two things: a file opening proxy which supports various URI schemes and does considerable magic, reimplementing fuse in a gnome-specific manner, and a "compat" layer around fuse itself.

In other words, gvfs does provide fuse mounts for connected folders, but you don't seem to be using them, somehow. Though file pickers like Firefox's gtk file picker should seamlessly support it, this won't work for drag-and-drop which does not use GIO to do file reads.

> but my bug report has not even been flagged as anything for over a year

What bug report?

gearhead · 2018-03-28 20:40:18

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=784115

Drag and drop works from nautilus to Gmail if the files are local. It does not if they are smb/sftp/etc. I have not tried to see if it works from an explicitly mounted FS. Also, should Github Desktop be able to use a mount like this? It is a Electron based app.

Is there a way to have these smb/sftp/etc mounts actually show up in the 'non gnome' file pickers? If it is a native gnome application, it can usually see the files/folders, but some apps use other file pickers and they cannot seem to see them at all. I do not know which programs off the top of my head, but I have run into this quite a bit. The one in wine, for sure, can no longer use these mounts.

As for the wiki:
Attached resources are exposed via a URI syntax, for example smb://server01/gamedata or ftp://username:password@ftp.example.net/public_html, but are also mounted in the traditional manner under ~/.gvfs/ or /run/user/$USER/gvfs or $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/gvfs directory[3][4] to make them available to applications using standard POSIX commands and I/O.

I do no think that ~/.gvfs is correct any more. When I have tried to create a link to the /run/user/$user/gvfs/* from ~/Documents, it has failed. I can try it again.

Gearhead

seth · 2018-03-28 21:08:39

gmail is a webservice - the thing that deals with your drag-an-drops is your browser.
It will be able to deal w/ the gvfs mounts, but rather not w/ the URIs.

There're non-gvfs (fuser-)mount implementations for various protocols, eg. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSHFS or https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sa … l_mounting

When I have tried to create a link to the /run/user/$user/gvfs/* from ~/Documents

What *exactly* have you done and *how* did it "fail"?

gearhead · 2018-03-28 21:14:44

Ok, I just did this last weekend, but will have to recreate it all to illustrate. Give me a few days to get back to you guys,.

gearhead · 2018-04-03 01:05:01

Ok, so I am here, again. I just tried this at work on a Windows 10 machine and it works. I'm at home on an Arch Linux machine. I have opened nautilus and went to 'Other Location' -> 'Connect to Server' and typed sftp://192.168.2.191 (my Raspberry Pi I am developing on). Now, I can see the remote machine files in Nautilus, All good.

Now I fire up Github Desktop. I add local repository and a file picker dialog opens up and I select the mounted file system that I am interested in:
It pastes this in the 'location window' /run/user/1001/gvfs/sftp:host=192.168.2.191,user=root/srv/http
I hit 'Add Repository' and Github Desktop starts grinding away... and now it appears to work. Now I look like a buffoon. It did not the other day when I tried this. Maybe a Github problem at that time?

Try again with another program:
Eagle 6.6.0 Schematic/Board development program. I try to open a schematic on that machine. All I get is a file picker which shows 'Computer' and my home directory. I have to navigate through computer to /run/user/1001/gvfs/and the folders show up there. It can open up a schamatic stored there. Still a pain as the mount does not show up under 'Computer' where I would expect it.

So, the gnome program works, the non-gnome program works if you know to look under /run/user/1001/gvfs (I need to know my UID) a lot of navigating.

Now try a wine program. Open Word and try to navigate. Even now that I know that the files are under /run/user/1001/gvfs, every time I try to select a file. I get wine complaining that "The name is not valid". If I create a sym link for wine: "ln -s /run/user/1001/gvfs/smb-share\:server\=livingrune\,share\=musicstorelocalstorage/ smb_mount", I can actually open the directory. I know I tried this before, recently, and it did not work. Maybe on the Ubuntu Machine running 16.04 (I know I did as my wife uses that one and I could not get anything like a sym link working at all).

It would be more 'expected mode of operation' if the 'mount' showed up in my user directory even if it was sym link for non-gnome (POSIX compliant) programs. I made a sym link to /run/user/1001/gvfs for most programs and will have to make soecific sym links for otehr directories with wine programs. The gnome file picker does show the samba and sftp mounts right where I expect them and does pick them accurately. Is it a recent development that they show up and work in the gnome file picker? I'll just continue using the sym link...

Sorry for the diversion...

seth · 2018-04-03 16:52:01

Not "wine", but "windows" - the colon (":") is not allow in filenames by all Windows APIs, so if you throw that path to any *windows* program, it will reject it as invalid.

Arch Linux

#1 2018-03-28 13:33:47

GVFS Thread -- split from Things that... Grrr

#2 2018-03-28 13:55:48

Re: GVFS Thread -- split from Things that... Grrr

#3 2018-03-28 14:01:37

Re: GVFS Thread -- split from Things that... Grrr

#4 2018-03-28 14:57:13

Re: GVFS Thread -- split from Things that... Grrr

#5 2018-03-28 15:05:49

Re: GVFS Thread -- split from Things that... Grrr

#6 2018-03-28 16:34:32

Re: GVFS Thread -- split from Things that... Grrr

#7 2018-03-28 17:00:06

Re: GVFS Thread -- split from Things that... Grrr

#8 2018-03-28 20:40:18

Re: GVFS Thread -- split from Things that... Grrr

#9 2018-03-28 21:08:39

Re: GVFS Thread -- split from Things that... Grrr

#10 2018-03-28 21:14:44

Re: GVFS Thread -- split from Things that... Grrr

#11 2018-04-03 01:05:01

Re: GVFS Thread -- split from Things that... Grrr

#12 2018-04-03 16:52:01

Re: GVFS Thread -- split from Things that... Grrr

Board footer