system_open command cannot open certain types of files properly

[la1den]

Description

I use nvim-tree's system open on the Linux desktop, but some types of files cannot be opened, while others can.

Neovim version

NVIM v0.9.2
Build type: Release
LuaJIT 2.1.1694285958

Operating system and version

Linux 6.1.56-1-lts x86_64 rolling n/a

Windows variant

No response

nvim-tree version

16a0e3c

Clean room replication

-- disable netrw at the very start of your init.lua (strongly advised)
vim.g.loaded_netrw = 1
vim.g.loaded_netrwPlugin = 1
-- set termguicolors to enable highlight groups
vim.opt.termguicolors = true
-- empty setup using defaults
require("nvim-tree").setup()

Steps to reproduce

1. Use nvim-tree to open a directory with a js suffix for a file
2. Press s to attempt to open the JS file

Expected behavior

No response

Actual behavior

No response

[la1den]

I think it may be related to input and output, so I tried to disable output redirection and it worked properly, but I don't know why.

system-open-test.mp4

[alex-courtis]

That's... just how xdg-open works. nvim-tree will simply call system_open.cmd with the absolute file path as the argument.

Run xdg-open something.js directly from a terminal to see what is going on.

Long ago I overrode xdg-open and have never looked back:

: ; cat /usr/local/bin/xdg-open
#!/bin/sh

# Suppress any spurious output from noisy apps like chrome.
# Invoke /usr/bin/xdg-open directly for more interactive operations.

/usr/bin/xdg-open "${@}" > /dev/null 2>&1

[la1den]

nvim-tree.lua/lua/nvim-tree/actions/node/system-open.lua

Line 22 in 874ae6e

stdio = { nil, nil, process.stderr },

stdio = process.cmd == 'xdg-open' and {nil, nil, nil} or { nil, nil, process.stderr }
Compared to modifying the system's xdg-open command, is it better to determine whether the cmd is xdg-open in the system-open file ?If other applications of the system use xdg-open, will they be affected by the modified xdg-open?

[alex-courtis]

Safest way might be a wrapper script on the path instead of overriding. You could explicitly set that e.g.

system_open.cmd = "my-quiet-xdg-open"