mm view PDF MIME part doesn't work, just exits

mm view PDF MIME part doesn't work, just exits

[Ted Zlatanov]

This used to work but now doesn't:

on an application/pdf attachment, I hit `e'

I see "Displaying xpdf /tmp/emm.../file.pdf...done" and that's it.  xpdf
doesn't come up as it should.

I customized the mailcap and mailcap-mime-data to ensure the right thing
is called, but no luck.  What should I do to debug this?

Thanks
Ted

Re: mm view PDF MIME part doesn't work, just exits

[Mike Kupfer]

>>>>> "Ted" == Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:

Ted> I see "Displaying xpdf /tmp/emm.../file.pdf...done" and that's it.
Ted> xpdf doesn't come up as it should.

Ted> I customized the mailcap and mailcap-mime-data to ensure the right
Ted> thing is called, but no luck.  What should I do to debug this?

The first thing I'd try is saving the attachment to a file, and then
starting xpdf from a shell to view it.

If that works, I'd create a wrapper script and use it instead of the
system xpdf.  For example, something like

  echo $* > $HOME/xpdf.args
  /usr/bin/xpdf $*

could verify that the command-line arguments are correct.

I recall seeing a thread not too long ago about problems that happen if
a viewer daemonizes itself.  The parent (Emacs in this case) thinks that
the viewer has finished, so it deletes the temp file, before the viewer
has actually read in the temp file.  I'd be surprised if xpdf were doing
that, but I suppose it's something you could check.

cheers,
mike

Re: mm view PDF MIME part doesn't work, just exits

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Sat, 29 Aug 2009 10:46:18 -0700 Mike Kupfer <m.kupfer@acm.org> wrote: 

>>>>>> "Ted" == Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
Ted> I see "Displaying xpdf /tmp/emm.../file.pdf...done" and that's it.
Ted> xpdf doesn't come up as it should.

Ted> I customized the mailcap and mailcap-mime-data to ensure the right
Ted> thing is called, but no luck.  What should I do to debug this?

MK> The first thing I'd try is saving the attachment to a file, and then
MK> starting xpdf from a shell to view it.

That's what I've been using as a workaround.  The file is OK.

MK> If that works, I'd create a wrapper script and use it instead of the
MK> system xpdf.  For example, something like

MK>   echo $* > $HOME/xpdf.args
MK>   /usr/bin/xpdf $*

MK> could verify that the command-line arguments are correct.

That does not work.

MK> I recall seeing a thread not too long ago about problems that happen if
MK> a viewer daemonizes itself.  The parent (Emacs in this case) thinks that
MK> the viewer has finished, so it deletes the temp file, before the viewer
MK> has actually read in the temp file.  I'd be surprised if xpdf were doing
MK> that, but I suppose it's something you could check.

I debugged this down to mm-decode.el:mm-display-external which is a
pretty complicated process invoker.  The process sentinel gets process
status 'exit as soon as the process starts, and the `state' variable
says:

Displaying xpdf /tmp/emm.32715eef/KR090831.pdf...done (exited abnormally with code 1
)

(I changed the notification message to also display the state).

From the command line, all this works, e.g.:

zsh -c 'xpdf /tmp/emm.32715eef/KR090831.pdf'

which xpdf => /usr/bin/xpdf

Changing to explicitly launch /usr/bin/xpdf didn't make a difference, as
expected (/usr/bin is in PATH no matter what).

I'm really puzzled at this point.  I've CC-ed the people who have
touched mm-decode.el recently, hoping they can enlighten me.  FWIW this
used to work and I'm sure I haven't changed any settings that may have
changed its behavior.  This affects both RET and `e' on an external MIME
part so I'm surprised no one else has noticed it.

Ted

Re: mm view PDF MIME part doesn't work, just exits

[Katsumi Yamaoka]

>>>>> Ted Zlatanov wrote:
> I debugged this down to mm-decode.el:mm-display-external which is a
> pretty complicated process invoker.  The process sentinel gets process
> status 'exit as soon as the process starts, and the `state' variable
> says:

> Displaying xpdf /tmp/emm.32715eef/KR090831.pdf...done (exited abnormally with code 1
> )

`mm-display-external' deletes a temp file 2 seconds after starting
an external command.  The number of seconds is hard-coded, and may
be too short.  How does it work if increasing the value?  That is
in the 918th line.

Re: mm view PDF MIME part doesn't work, just exits

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:58:36 +0900 Katsumi Yamaoka <yamaoka@jpl.org> wrote: 

>>>>>> Ted Zlatanov wrote:
>> I debugged this down to mm-decode.el:mm-display-external which is a
>> pretty complicated process invoker.  The process sentinel gets process
>> status 'exit as soon as the process starts, and the `state' variable
>> says:

>> Displaying xpdf /tmp/emm.32715eef/KR090831.pdf...done (exited abnormally with code 1
>> )

KY> `mm-display-external' deletes a temp file 2 seconds after starting
KY> an external command.  The number of seconds is hard-coded, and may
KY> be too short.  How does it work if increasing the value?  That is
KY> in the 918th line.

I tried 2000 seconds, no difference.  I also changed the process call to:

		    (start-process "*display*"
				   (setq buffer
					 (generate-new-buffer " *mm*"))
				   shell-file-name
				   shell-command-switch "/usr/bin/xpdf /home/tzz/work/gdb-refcard.pdf")

which definitely works from the command line.  It still failed the same
way, "exited abnormally with code 1".  Maybe zsh is doing something
strange, but this was working fine until about a month ago so I'm not
sure what's causing it to fail.  Am I the only one seeing this problem?

Ted

Re: mm view PDF MIME part doesn't work, just exits

[Katsumi Yamaoka]

>>>>> Ted Zlatanov wrote:
> (start-process "*display*"
> 	       (setq buffer
> 		     (generate-new-buffer " *mm*"))
> 	       shell-file-name
> 	       shell-command-switch
> 	       "/usr/bin/xpdf /home/tzz/work/gdb-refcard.pdf")

> which definitely works from the command line.  It still failed the same
> way, "exited abnormally with code 1".  Maybe zsh is doing something
> strange, but this was working fine until about a month ago so I'm not
> sure what's causing it to fail.  Am I the only one seeing this problem?

Hm.  No problem here.

uname -a
Linux pastis 2.6.30.5-43.fc11.i686.PAE #1 SMP Thu Aug 27 21:34:36 EDT 2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

zsh --version
zsh 4.3.9 (i386-redhat-linux-gnu)

xpdf -v
xpdf version 3.02

Re: mm view PDF MIME part doesn't work, just exits

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:57:38 +0900 Katsumi Yamaoka <yamaoka@jpl.org> wrote: 

>>>>>> Ted Zlatanov wrote:
>> (start-process "*display*"
>> (setq buffer
>> (generate-new-buffer " *mm*"))
>> shell-file-name
>> shell-command-switch
>> "/usr/bin/xpdf /home/tzz/work/gdb-refcard.pdf")

>> which definitely works from the command line.  It still failed the same
>> way, "exited abnormally with code 1".  Maybe zsh is doing something
>> strange, but this was working fine until about a month ago so I'm not
>> sure what's causing it to fail.  Am I the only one seeing this problem?

KY> Hm.  No problem here.

KY> uname -a
KY> Linux pastis 2.6.30.5-43.fc11.i686.PAE #1 SMP Thu Aug 27 21:34:36 EDT 2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

KY> zsh --version
KY> zsh 4.3.9 (i386-redhat-linux-gnu)

KY> xpdf -v
KY> xpdf version 3.02

Turns out a customization for MacOS X (disabling DISPLAY so w3m won't
block) was leaking into my Linux setup.

This was hard to debug because mm-display-external doesn't show much
information about the process status.  To debug I used the patch below,
but the function should really capture STDOUT and STDERR of the process.
Is that possible?

Thanks
Ted

Index: mm-decode.el
===================================================================
RCS file: /usr/local/cvsroot/gnus/lisp/mm-decode.el,v
retrieving revision 7.70
diff -c -r7.70 mm-decode.el
*** mm-decode.el	23 Jun 2009 22:39:00 -0000	7.70
--- mm-decode.el	16 Sep 2009 16:03:34 -0000
***************
*** 930,936 ****
  				 (timer-set-function timer fn)
  			       (funcall fn))
  			     (ignore-errors (eval fm))
! 			     (message "%s" done)))))))
  		(mm-handle-set-external-undisplayer
  		 handle (cons file buffer)))
  	      (message "Displaying %s..." command))
--- 930,936 ----
  				 (timer-set-function timer fn)
  			       (funcall fn))
  			     (ignore-errors (eval fm))
! 			     (message "%s (%s)" done state)))))))
  		(mm-handle-set-external-undisplayer
  		 handle (cons file buffer)))
  	      (message "Displaying %s..." command))