GNU bug report logs - #15504
24.3; find-dired's numerous prompts are inflexible and annoying

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: trentbuck <at> gmail.com (Trent W. Buck)
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 24.3; find-dired's numerous prompts are inflexible and annoying
Date: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 11:45:16 +1000

I prefer to do M-x grep RET and then type something complicated like

    grep -r --include '*.c' --exclude-dir .git . -e foo -e bar

...rather than M-x rgrep which has lots of stupid prompts that then get
stuck together in a fixed kind of way.

In the same vein, I hate M-x find dired RET multiple prompts.  For a few
years I've been using a munged up replacement that just asks for a
single command, and runs it (below).  The history handling is a bit
buggered, and it breaks the existing multi-prompt style (presumably some
people prefer it).

Daniel Colascione liked my approach and asked me to publish it,
(presumably) so it can be cleaned up and pushed into Emacs proper.
I don't care enough to do that work myself, but I'm happy to talk to
anyone who does.  I've already done the copyright assignment dance.

PS: find -ls's output is actually crap, because the entries don't line
up properly and files with spaces become "foo\ bar" which dired mode
doesn't like, so I generally end up doing "find -exec ls -lidsh {} +".


(setq
 find-ls-option                         ; http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/4403
 (let ((help (shell-command-to-string (format "%s --help" find-program))))
   (if (string-match " -ls\\>" help)
       '("-ls" . "-lids")
     (if (string-match "{} \\+" help)
         '("-exec ls -ldh {} +" . "-ldh")
       '("-exec ls -ldh {} \\;" . "-ldh")))))

;;; Guerilla patch -- redefine FIND-DIRED to act less like RGREP and more like
;;; GREP.  That is, prompt for an arbitrary command instead of "helpfully"
;;; constructing a command from an inflexible series of prompts.  Defaults to
;;; "find -ls"; "find -exec ls {} +" is also possible to e.g. sort by file size.
(eval-after-load "dired"
  '(eval-after-load "find-dired"
     '(progn
        (defvar find-command/twb (concat find-program " " (car find-ls-option)))
        (defvar find-command-history/twb nil)
        (defun find-dired (command)
          "Like find-dired, but let me just WRITE the command instead of
trying to construct it for me.  Cf. `grep' vs. `rgrep'."
          (interactive (list (read-string "Run find: " find-command/twb '(find-command-history/twb . 1))))
          (let ((dired-buffers dired-buffers)
                (dir default-directory))
            (switch-to-buffer (get-buffer-create "*Find*"))
            (setq default-directory dir)

            ;; See if there's still a `find' running, and offer to kill
            ;; it first, if it is.
            (let ((find (get-buffer-process (current-buffer))))
              (when find
                (if (or (not (eq (process-status find) 'run))
                        (yes-or-no-p "A `find' process is running; kill it? "))
                    (condition-case nil
                        (progn
                          (interrupt-process find)
                          (sit-for 1)
                          (delete-process find))
                      (error nil))
                  (error "Cannot have two processes in `%s' at once" (buffer-name)))))

            (widen)
            (kill-all-local-variables)
            (setq buffer-read-only nil)
            (erase-buffer)
            (setq find-command command) ; save for next interactive call
            ;; Start the find process.
            (shell-command (concat command "&") (current-buffer))
            ;; The next statement will bomb in classic dired (no optional arg allowed)
            (dired-mode default-directory (cdr find-ls-option))
            (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
              (set-keymap-parent map (current-local-map))
              (define-key map "\C-c\C-k" 'kill-find)
              (use-local-map map))
            (make-local-variable 'dired-sort-inhibit)
            (setq dired-sort-inhibit t)
            (set (make-local-variable 'revert-buffer-function)
                 `(lambda (ignore-auto noconfirm)
                    (find-dired ,find-command)))
            ;; Set subdir-alist so that Tree Dired will work:
            (if (fboundp 'dired-simple-subdir-alist)
                ;; will work even with nested dired format (dired-nstd.el,v 1.15
                ;; and later)
                (dired-simple-subdir-alist)
              ;; else we have an ancient tree dired (or classic dired, where
              ;; this does no harm)
              (set (make-local-variable 'dired-subdir-alist)
                   (list (cons default-directory (point-min-marker)))))
            (set (make-local-variable 'dired-subdir-switches) find-ls-subdir-switches)
            (setq buffer-read-only nil)
            ;; Subdir headlerline must come first because the first marker in
            ;; subdir-alist points there.
            (insert "  " default-directory ":\n")
            ;; Make second line a ``find'' line in analogy to the ``total'' or
            ;; ``wildcard'' line.
            (insert "  " command "\n")
            (setq buffer-read-only t)
            (let ((proc (get-buffer-process (current-buffer))))
              (set-process-filter proc (function find-dired-filter))
              (set-process-sentinel proc (function find-dired-sentinel))
              ;; Initialize the process marker; it is used by the filter.
              (move-marker (process-mark proc) 1 (current-buffer)))
            (setq mode-line-process '(":%s")))))))




In GNU Emacs 24.3.1 (armv7l-unknown-linux-gnueabi)
 of 2013-03-15 on elba
System Description:	Ubuntu 11.10

Configured using:
 `configure '--without-x' '--without-sound' '--without-all'
 '--with-x-toolkit=no' '--with-xpm=no' '--with-gif=no' '--with-jpeg=no'
 '--with-tiff=no' '--with-png=no' '--with-dbus=no' '--with-gsettings=no'
 '--with-gnutls=no' '--prefix=/home/twb/opt/emacs-24.3''

Message #8 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Kevin Rodgers <kevin.d.rodgers <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#15504: 24.3; find-dired's numerous prompts are inflexible
 and annoying
Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2013 22:16:34 -0600

On 10/1/13 7:45 PM, Trent W. Buck wrote:
> I prefer to do M-x grep RET and then type something complicated like
>
>      grep -r --include '*.c' --exclude-dir .git . -e foo -e bar
>
> ...rather than M-x rgrep which has lots of stupid prompts that then get
> stuck together in a fixed kind of way.
>
> In the same vein, I hate M-x find dired RET multiple prompts.  For a few
> years I've been using a munged up replacement that just asks for a
> single command, and runs it (below).  The history handling is a bit
> buggered, and it breaks the existing multi-prompt style (presumably some
> people prefer it).

I'm afraid I don't get what you're saying, since `M-x find-dired' only prompts
for the directory to search and the long string of arguments you love to type:

	find-dired is an interactive autoloaded Lisp function in
	`find-dired.el'.
	
	(find-dired DIR ARGS)
	
	Run `find' and go into Dired mode on a buffer of the output.
	The command run (after changing into DIR) is
	
	    find . \( ARGS \) -ls
	
	except that the variable `find-ls-option' specifies what to use
	as the final argument.

And the implementation confirms the documentation:

	(defun find-dired (dir args)
	...
	  (interactive (list (read-file-name "Run find in directory: " nil "" t)
			     (read-string "Run find (with args): " find-args
					  '(find-args-history . 1))))

...

> PS: find -ls's output is actually crap, because the entries don't line
> up properly and files with spaces become "foo\ bar" which dired mode
> doesn't like, so I generally end up doing "find -exec ls -lidsh {} +".

Apparently that is what `find-ls-option' is for.

-- 
Kevin Rodgers
Denver, Colorado, USA

Message #11 received at 15504 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: Kevin Rodgers <kevin.d.rodgers <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 15504 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#15504: 24.3; find-dired's numerous prompts are inflexible
 and annoying
Date: Sun, 30 May 2021 07:55:39 +0200

Kevin Rodgers <kevin.d.rodgers <at> gmail.com> writes:

> I'm afraid I don't get what you're saying, since `M-x find-dired' only prompts
> for the directory to search and the long string of arguments you love to type:

So I don't think there's anything to fix here, and I'm closing this bug
report.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

Message #16 received at 15504 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "Trent W. Buck" <trentbuck <at> gmail.com>
To: 15504 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#15504: 24.3; find-dired's numerous prompts are inflexible
 and annoying
Date: Sun, 30 May 2021 21:41:25 +1000

I'm fine with the "no bug here, closing".
Below is some context / brainstorming / waffling, for the record.


I had a look back to try to remember why I wrote this code originally.
I think it was some combination of these things:

  1. two prompt means two separate history lists.  This annoys/annoyed me.

  2. find-ls-option didn't support -ls, so was really slow on really large finds
     (https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=4403)

  3. can ONLY run find, so can't do things like

        # find is too slow, use a cached version
        locate '*.gif' -i0 | xargs -0 ls -hlds

     or

        # find over NFS is too slow, run find on the NFS server
        # (but let Emacs use NFS, not ssh)
        ssh nfs-server find $PWD ...

     or

        # Read from custom metadata that requires expensive ffprobe(1)
        sqlite3 videos.db 'SELECT path FROM videos
                            WHERE duration >60
                              AND rating >=4
                              AND last_seen < julianday()-365' |
        xargs -d\\n ls -hlds |
        shuf


  4. because it's enclosed in \( \), can't "end" with an '-o' or ',',

        find -delete -o -ls     # list file my user can't delete
        find -readable -o -ls   # list files my user can't read

     without reordering the logic, which can be a little annoying for very queries.

  5. can't add things like |sort or |tac to the end, so that the page
     takes time to appear, but when it does, is in a more useful state.

     In Emacs 27+ by default find-dired-refine-function behaves similar to
     adding |sort, except it kicks in when find terminates -- which is usually
     after I've started operating on the first few files, so I end up super confused.

     Actually 99% of the time what I would do is delegate this to ls
     (and hope I didn't have too many files to fit a single ls
     execution).  e.g.

     find -ls
     # ugh this isn't sorted, because ZFS
     M-x <up> RET <up>, change -ls to -exec ls -hlds {} +
     # actually I only care about the biggest files.
     M-x <up> RET <up>, add -Sr
     # wow that's a lot, let's filter it down
     M-x <up> RET <up>, add -size +128M
     # actually I only care about files PHP can see
     M-x <up> RET <up> C-a sudo -u nginx -g www-data RET

Thinking back on all this, what I want is not to run an arbitrary *find* command.
I want to run an *entirely* arbitrary command, and have dired colorize and buttonize the filenames.
The same way I use M-x grep RET with git-grep, not grep.
The same way I add -*-compilation-*- to script(1) files, even though M-x compilation didn't generate them.

I think the two-argument find-dired that's in upstream currently is "good enough" for about 80% of my usage, but
there's lot of niggling edge cases where I can't go "oh I'll just tweak the command" because
find-dired doesn't expose that to me.

Looking at the code again today, the reason WHY is pretty obvious -- dired-mode needs to know
1) default-directory; and 2) the format ls format to parse.

compilation-mode has the same issue for (1) and I solve that by just
putting it in the modeline (IIRC):

    -*-mode:compilation; default-directory:"/rsync:build-server:/var/tmp/buildd/frobozz-1234/"-*-

I haven't really solved (2), I've always just sorta ignored it :-(

Kevin Rodgers wrote:
> On 10/1/13 7:45 PM, Trent W. Buck wrote:
> > I prefer to do M-x grep RET and then type something complicated like
> >
> >      grep -r --include '*.c' --exclude-dir .git . -e foo -e bar
> >
> > ...rather than M-x rgrep which has lots of stupid prompts that then get
> > stuck together in a fixed kind of way.
> >
> > In the same vein, I hate M-x find dired RET multiple prompts.  For a few
> > years I've been using a munged up replacement that just asks for a
> > single command, and runs it (below).  The history handling is a bit
> > buggered, and it breaks the existing multi-prompt style (presumably some
> > people prefer it).
>
> I'm afraid I don't get what you're saying, since `M-x find-dired' only prompts
> for the directory to search and the long string of arguments you love to type:
>
>       find-dired is an interactive autoloaded Lisp function in
>       `find-dired.el'.
>
>       (find-dired DIR ARGS)
>
>       Run `find' and go into Dired mode on a buffer of the output.
>       The command run (after changing into DIR) is
>
>           find . \( ARGS \) -ls
>
>       except that the variable `find-ls-option' specifies what to use
>       as the final argument.



> And the implementation confirms the documentation:
>
>       (defun find-dired (dir args)
>       ...
>         (interactive (list (read-file-name "Run find in directory: " nil "" t)
>                            (read-string "Run find (with args): " find-args
>                                         '(find-args-history . 1))))
>
> ...
>
> > PS: find -ls's output is actually crap, because the entries don't line
> > up properly and files with spaces become "foo\ bar" which dired mode
> > doesn't like, so I generally end up doing "find -exec ls -lidsh {} +".
>
> Apparently that is what `find-ls-option' is for.

Message #19 received at 15504 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen <at> web.de>
To: "Trent W. Buck" <trentbuck <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 15504 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#15504: 24.3; find-dired's numerous prompts are inflexible
 and annoying
Date: Sun, 30 May 2021 14:30:12 +0200

"Trent W. Buck" <trentbuck <at> gmail.com> writes:

> I'm fine with the "no bug here, closing".
> Below is some context / brainstorming / waffling, for the record.
> [...]

For repeated calls with slightly different parameters I rather use
`repeat-complex-command' instead of the command itself.

Apart from that detail: would it make sense to provide a more general
command that allows to view the output of any shell command to be viewed
as a dired buffer, or something like that, to get rid of the
restrictions?  Or what would you suggest instead?

Michael.

Message #22 received at 15504 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "Trent W. Buck" <trentbuck <at> gmail.com>
To: Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen <at> web.de>
Cc: 15504 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#15504: 24.3; find-dired's numerous prompts are inflexible
 and annoying
Date: Mon, 31 May 2021 00:09:57 +1000

Michael Heerdegen wrote:
> "Trent W. Buck" <trentbuck <at> gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > I'm fine with the "no bug here, closing".
> > Below is some context / brainstorming / waffling, for the record.
> > [...]
> 
> For repeated calls with slightly different parameters I rather use
> `repeat-complex-command' instead of the command itself.
> 
> Apart from that detail: would it make sense to provide a more general
> command that allows to view the output of any shell command to be viewed
> as a dired buffer, or something like that, to get rid of the
> restrictions?  Or what would you suggest instead?

I don't have a cler vision of what I want, but yeah, that's my vague thinking.
Which is pretty much

    (dired-mode default-directory (cdr find-ls-option))

so I'm not sure why I had all those other lines in the original post.

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