gmrun alternatives?

doicomehereoften1 · 2022-10-30 15:10:32

I think it's mentioned in other threads about how gmrun can't find locations in your path if that path location is a hidden dir, such as ~/.local. In the interest of keeping my home directory fairly clean and respecting current conventions of moving user-installed and programs not managed by a package manager into ~/.local I'm wondering if there's some alternatives to gmrun, or maybe a more recent version or fork of gmrun that's willing to look in "hidden" path locations?

Last edited by doicomehereoften1 (2022-10-30 15:11:43)

rbh · 2022-10-30 15:47:43

doicomehereoften1 wrote:

I think it's mentioned in other threads about how gmrun can't find locations in your path if that path location is a hidden dir, such as ~/.local.

I think you are misstaken. I can't remember anything like that...

In the interest of keeping my home directory fairly clean and respecting current conventions of moving user-installed and programs not managed by a package manager into ~/.local I'm wondering if there's some alternatives to gmrun, or maybe a more recent version or fork of gmrun that's willing to look in "hidden" path locations?

"pip3" (the pythonmanager) installs python-packages to /home/rbh/.local/bin/.
I have for exemple /home/rbh/.local/bin/glances.
Command which "glances" returns "/home/rbh/.local/bin/glances".
Command glances, starts glances.

Do you have ~/.local in your path? I don't!
I have ~/.local/bin and ~/bin.

If a program is in a hidden directory and is in your path, ysu should be able to start it from gmrun.

rbh · 2022-10-30 23:07:26

Btw, make sure you have "ShowDotFiles = 1" and not "ShowDotFiles = 0" in ~/.gmrunrc.

doicomehereoften1 · 2022-10-31 01:03:32

Thanks for the response!

I have /home/{my name}/.local/bin as the first entry in my $PATH. I also double checked the value of ShowDotFiles in my .gmrunrc and it is set to 1.

Despite this, I don't get autocompletion for programs in ~/.local/bin.

Looks like my gmrun version is 0.9.2. I'm on Beryllium, but I wouldn't think that would make a difference for gmrun?

Edit/Update: I do get autocomplete for things in ~/.local/bin in my terminal, so it's definitely correctly set in the $PATH.

Last edited by doicomehereoften1 (2022-10-31 01:09:20)

rbh · 2022-10-31 07:20:05

rbh wrote:

If a program is in a hidden directory and is in your path, you should be able to start it from gmrun.

I am sorry, I was wrong and you are right.
There is problem with gmrun starting program in hidden path. But so is it also with alternatives like grun and xfce4-appfinder (started with flag -c).

I mostly start program from terminal. My python-programs in ~/.local/bin, is curserbased and can never be started from grun or grmrun... I was so sure I had started glances from gmrun, that I don't even tested.

But, if you prefer to install to ~/.local/bin, instead of to ~/bin, you can at least pu an symlink in ~/bin.

rbh · 2022-10-31 08:09:35

doicomehereoften1 wrote:

Despite this, I don't get autocompletion for programs in ~/.local/bin.

But, autocompletion is available for me.
in gmrun, i type /h>TAB, and get completion to /home/. I press r>TAB, and get completion to /home/rbh. I press .lo>TAB and get completion to
/home/rbh/.local/. Now pressing TAB, lets me choose bin. Pressing TAB again, lets me choose program in /home/rbh/.local/.
Pressing ~/.>TAB, autocompletes to /home/rbh/.Fontmatrix/, with Fontmatrix greyed. Pressing lo, changes to /home/rbh/.local/
So, autocompletion is present. But you can not only type the command to start the program. You have to give the whole path.

Looks like my gmrun version is 0.9.2. I'm on Beryllium, but I wouldn't think that would make a difference for gmrun?

You should be on version 0.9.2-3, regardless if you are on Debian buster or bullseye (beryllium is for bullseye). What is output of

$ apt policy gmrun

brontosaurusrex · 2022-10-31 08:52:51

Preinstalled alternative would be dmenu (alt + f3), otherwise some people are using rofi (should be in repos).

rbh · 2022-10-31 10:43:44

brontosaurusrex wrote:

Preinstalled alternative would be dmenu (alt + f3),

I have texstudio installed and downloaded appinage to ~/.local/bin/texstudio-4.3.1-x86_64.AppImage.

Starting dmenu and typing "texs", only let me choose to start installed texstudio.

otherwise some people are using rofi (should be in repos).

Yes. rofi works. Starting rofi with "rofi -show run", typing "texs", lets me choose to start installed texstudio or texstudio-4.3.1-x86_64.AppImage.

doicomehereoften1 · 2022-11-01 03:14:25

rbh wrote:

But, autocompletion is available for me.

Autocompletion to files in paths that aren't hidden, yes. For instance vim is installed globally in a non-hidden directory (/usr/bin/vim), so I get autocomplete for that. I don't get autocomplete for hledger, which I compiled myself and placed in ~/.local/bin. It seems like poor design or oversight that I'd have to enter/autocomplete the full path to something that's already in my $PATH.

rbh wrote:

What is output of
$ apt policy gmrun

gmrun:
  Installed: 0.9.2-3
  Candidate: 0.9.2-3
  Version table:
 *** 0.9.2-3 500
        500 https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

brontosaurusrex wrote:

Preinstalled alternative would be dmenu (alt + f3), otherwise some people are using rofi (should be in repos).

dmenu also cannot find things in ~/.local/bin.

I'll give rofi a shot, but it looks like it does a lot more than something like gmrun or dmenu. I get conflicted on Unix Philosophy when it comes to GUI programs, especially when it could/should be something ostensibly simple, like what gmrun or dmenu do.

brontosaurusrex · 2022-11-01 06:11:44

Going back to gmrun, lets say I have an executable named 'hello' in $HOME/.local/bin with

notify-send "Hello from the other side"

Option A.
and I start gmrun with

PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" gmrun

Now gmrun will magically find my hello script.

Option B.
Add path additions to .bashrc

if [ -d "$HOME/.local/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
fi

and start gmrun as

bash -ci 'gmrun'

(gmrun is child inheriting PATH from parent process, that is 'bash interactive shell')

and edit the .xbindkeyarc accordingly

# Run Program
"bash -ci gmrun"
    Alt + F2

Option C. A. and B. are workarounds, find exactly where to put that path to (.profile seems to be the wrong place).

Notes: My .gmrunrc includes 'ShowDotFiles = 1' which may or may not matter.

Edit: I'd go with B after some testing would happen.

Last edited by brontosaurusrex (2022-11-01 07:39:55)

rbh · 2022-11-01 06:49:29

doicomehereoften1 wrote:

rbh wrote:
But, autocompletion is available for me.
[...]
I don't get autocomplete for hledger, which I compiled myself and placed in ~/.local/bin.

If you type "~/.lo" and press TAB, in gmrun, don't you get autocompletion to /home/[username]/.local?

It seems like poor design or oversight that I'd have to enter/autocomplete the full path to something that's already in my $PATH.

In contrast to rofi, gmrun is very old. The use of ~/.local was not standard when gmrun was written. If you want to start program in ~/.local by only typing part of executable name in gmrun, you have to place symlink in ~/bin.
Else change to newer alternative like rofi.

rbh · 2022-11-01 07:19:34

I glanced the manual: https://manpages.debian.org/bullseye/gm … .1.en.html, learned that you can search for previous commands in gmrun.

If you run ctrl+r, you can type the first letters of previous command.

#1 2022-10-30 15:10:32

gmrun alternatives?

#2 2022-10-30 15:47:43

Re: gmrun alternatives?

#3 2022-10-30 23:07:26

Re: gmrun alternatives?

#4 2022-10-31 01:03:32

Re: gmrun alternatives?

#5 2022-10-31 07:20:05

Re: gmrun alternatives?

#6 2022-10-31 08:09:35

Re: gmrun alternatives?

#7 2022-10-31 08:52:51

Re: gmrun alternatives?

#8 2022-10-31 10:43:44

Re: gmrun alternatives?

#9 2022-11-01 03:14:25

Re: gmrun alternatives?

#10 2022-11-01 06:11:44

Re: gmrun alternatives?

#11 2022-11-01 06:49:29

Re: gmrun alternatives?

#12 2022-11-01 07:19:34

Re: gmrun alternatives?

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