Bug 268386

Summary:	editor/emacs-devel: PGTK option with X server is unsupported
Product:	Ports & Packages	Reporter:	Yoshiaki Kasahara <ykasap>
Component:	Individual Port(s)	Assignee:	emacs (Nobody) <emacs>
Status:	New ---
Severity:	Affects Some People	CC:	emacs, jbeich
Priority:	---	Flags:	jbeich: maintainer-feedback? (emacs)
Version:	Latest
Hardware:	Any
OS:	Any

Description Yoshiaki Kasahara 2022-12-15 01:25:39 UTC

editor/emacs-devel enables the "PGTK" option by default, but running the package with the X server emits a warning window saying:

You are trying to run Emacs configured with the "pure-GTK" interface under the X Window System.  That configuration is unsupported and will lead to sporadic crashes during transfer of large selection data.  It will also lead to various problems with keyboard input.

I believe most FreeBSD users still use X servers for their desktops, so could you please consider disabling the "PGTK" option by default? Or is this package for more adventurous people running Wayland?

Comment 1 Jan Beich freebsd_committer

2022-12-16 13:58:20 UTC

If stability is a real concern PGTK (and maybe XAW) can probably be moved into a flavor. Unfortunately, without provides/requires in Mk/bsd.port.mk that may require bloating USES=emacs packages with more flavors.

-devel suffix in emacs-devel already implies adventurous users: Emacs snapshots can cause crashes or break Elisp code.

According to bsdstats "emacs-nox" (63) is more popular than "emacs" (49) and "emacs-devel" (2) is more popular than "emacs-devel-nox" (0). The ratio discrepancy is curious and can imply a subset chose "emacs-devel" because of Wayland support.

Disclaimer: I'm not part of emacs@, just a Wayland user using emacs-devel but not represented in bsdstats (to avoid bias for my ports).

Comment 2 Yoshiaki Kasahara 2022-12-21 02:00:37 UTC

Thank you for providing the bsdstats data. The user base is small, and they can probably handle the issue by themselves. So, I think adding more flavor is excessive.

I'm fine to have PGTK enabled by default, but I prefer a gentle warning about PGTK in pkg-message similar to the native compilation comment.