blocks forever on test/plain files

[brianmay]

According to the docs, on Linux this is equivalent to using "xdg-open filename".

When I run xdg-open file.txt it lets me edit the file using the helix editor in the current terminal window.

But if I use cargo run 'file.txt' it freezes, and Ctrl-C won't kill it.

I believe this comes from /home/brian/.nix-profile/share/applications/Helix.desktop which clearly has Terminal=true, so either it should work, open a terminal window, or we should ignore applications that have this setting.

But just hanging seems to be wrong.

[Byron]

Thanks for reporting and for finding the (or a possible) culprit.

The underlying assumption of open is that the programs it calls are never blocking, which is clearly untrue. It came from MacOS, its primary platform, where this is true for all I know.

It would be interesting to understand what's going on there - is the editor actually open but not visible? Does it then intercept Ctrl-C nonetheless? It feels like xdg-open did its job but is waiting for the editor, or maybe isn't there anymore at all.

[brianmay]

Good question, I am not 100% sure what is going on.

I do see hx running, and it seems to be "sleeping". So it is possible it is somehow grabbing keystrokes, but isn't visible.

OK, I just confirmed this. Typing in ":q" exits the editor after about 1 second delay, and then things resume normally.