Alpine with GNU screen and url-viewers

Echecero

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Jul 9, 2008, 7:50:17 AM7/9/08

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I'm running Ubuntu, and have installed Alpine from the package
manager, so I have alpine_1.0+dfsg-3_i386

If I open Alpine from a login shell, then choose to view a URL in my
defined url-viewer, elinks opens as expected with the desired page
displayed.

The problem is that I prefer to use GNU screen to allow multiple
virtual terminals in a single SSH session. When I oppen Alpine from
inside screen, everything seems to work correctly (including color and
xterm-mouse), except for the url-viewer. The screen flashes "[VIEWER
command completed]" and the following is written to standard error:

"Can't exec /usr/bin/elinks -force-html http://www.google.com
Reason: No such file or directory"

This is the same command being used by Alpine outside of screen.

I have tried replacing the browser with a bash script that simply logs
any arguments that it receives in a text file. It executes as expected
when set as the url-viewer with Alpine running outside of screen, but
doesn't execute when Alpine is running inside screen.

I don't understand what the difference could be. There are no relative
paths, and other apps (such as raggle) are able to spawn new elinks
instances from inside a screen virtual terminal.

Any ideas?

Eduardo Chappa

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Jul 9, 2008, 11:29:54 AM7/9/08

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On Wed, 9 Jul 2008, Echecero wrote:

:) The problem is that I prefer to use GNU screen to allow multiple
:) virtual terminals in a single SSH session. When I oppen Alpine from
:) inside screen, everything seems to work correctly (including color and
:) xterm-mouse), except for the url-viewer. The screen flashes "[VIEWER
:) command completed]" and the following is written to standard error:
:)
:) "Can't exec /usr/bin/elinks -force-html http://www.google.com Reason:
:) No such file or directory"

The "-force-html" option probably takes the input from a file, that is
something like "index.html". Try "/usr/bin/elinks _URL_" as your command
for the url-viewer instead.

--
Eduardo
http://staff.washington.edu/chappa/alpine/

Echecero

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Jul 10, 2008, 4:11:42 AM7/10/08

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Using the following all have the same result:
/usr/bin/elinks _URL_
/usr/bin/lynx _URL_
/usr/bin/elinks
/usr/bin/lynx

If they are used outside of a screen VT, the browser takes over and
loads. If used from inside a screen VT, the "Can't exec....No such
file or directory"

Eduardo Chappa

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Jul 10, 2008, 1:36:15 PM7/10/08

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On Thu, 10 Jul 2008, Echecero wrote:

:) Using the following all have the same result:
:) /usr/bin/elinks _URL_
:) /usr/bin/lynx _URL_
:) /usr/bin/elinks
:) /usr/bin/lynx
:)
:) If they are used outside of a screen VT, the browser takes over and
:) loads. If used from inside a screen VT, the "Can't exec....No such file
:) or directory"

When you are about to open the browser, you press RETURN, say and you get
a menu in the bottom of the screen. One of the items in the menu is "A
editApp". What does it say if you press "A"?

Also, what is the value of your $SHELL variable?

--
Eduardo
http://staff.washington.edu/chappa/alpine/

Echecero

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Jul 10, 2008, 1:44:22 PM7/10/08

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Thank you. It's always something obvious, isn't it?

For some reason, my SHELL was set to "bash" (no path) inside screen. I
just changed it, and now Alpine launches my viewer as expected.