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bobmichael

Member

Registered: 2011-08-15

Posts: 6

[SOLVED] "terminal -e read" doesn't work under XFCE

Hello.

Here's my problem: on my XFCE desktop, when I type in "terminal -e read" into XFCE's terminal emulator, I get an error stating: "Failed to execute child process "read" (No such file or directory)."

That's weird because I can normally run a direct "read" command from XFCE's terminal emulator, and also because typing "xterm -e read" into an xterm window works.
Is this a bug in XFCE's terminal emulator or something?

Last edited by bobmichael (2011-08-27 16:57:04)

hbekel

Member

Registered: 2008-10-04

Posts: 311

Re: [SOLVED] "terminal -e read" doesn't work under XFCE

read is a bash builtin command, not a standalone executable. It seems that the semantics of the -e option differ between xterm and the xfce terminal. Xterm will try to run the command in the shell if it is found not to be an executable on PATH, whereas the xfce terminal seems to always expect an executable file for the -e option. At least this is what it looks like (I don't use xfce myself). Check the manuals to make sure. Have you tried "terminal -e bash -c read" instead?

bobmichael

Member

Registered: 2011-08-15

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] "terminal -e read" doesn't work under XFCE

Yes, that works. Thanks for explaining!