Bug 420144

Summary:	Visual Studio Code desktop action doesn't launch
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	codingkoopa
Component:	general	Assignee:	David Edmundson <kde>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	minor	CC:	nate, plasma-bugs-null
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	5.18.4
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Arch Linux
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments:	The error dialog that is shown after clicking on the desktop action. The context menu in which the desktop action appears.

Description codingkoopa 2020-04-16 02:07:51 UTC

Created attachment 127588 [details]
The error dialog that is shown after clicking on the desktop action.

SUMMARY
Visual Studio Code's desktop file has a desktop action for opening a "New Empty Window". Clicking on the desktop file to run it works, but running this desktop action doesn't.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Install VS Code (I'm using the "code" Arch Linux package).
2. From one of the application menus, or the task manager widget, right click the desktop entry for VS Code and select "New Empty Window".

OBSERVED RESULT
An error dialog is displayed, stating "Could not find the program '@@EXEC@@'".

EXPECTED RESULT
A new empty window of VS Code should be opened.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma: Arch Linux, kernel 5.6.3
(available in About System)
KDE Plasma Version: 5.18.4.1
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.91.0
Qt Version: 5.14.2

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The VS Code desktop entry is as follows:

> [Desktop Entry]
> Name=Code - OSS
> Comment=Code Editing. Redefined.
> GenericName=Text Editor
> Exec=/usr/bin/code-oss --no-sandbox --unity-launch %F
> Icon=code-oss
> Type=Application
> StartupNotify=false
> StartupWMClass=Code
> Categories=Utility;TextEditor;Development;IDE;
> MimeType=text/plain;
> Actions=new-empty-window;
> Keywords=vscode;
> 
> [Desktop Action new-empty-window]
> Name=New Empty Window
> Exec=/usr/bin/code-oss --no-sandbox --new-window %F
> Icon=code-oss
This bug may be able to be made more generalized, however I have not seen any other applications exhibit this behavior.

Comment 1 codingkoopa 2020-04-16 02:08:57 UTC

Created attachment 127589 [details]
The context menu in which the desktop action appears.

Comment 2 David Edmundson 2020-04-16 21:42:04 UTC

>/usr/bin/code-oss --no-sandbox --new-window %F

How can an action take a filepath, that sounds wrong, but I assume we would parse it out.

What happens when you run:

/usr/bin/code-oss --no-sandbox --new-window 
and
/usr/bin/code-oss --no-sandbox --new-window %F

Also note that this code path has changed super recently so that we share the same path for action activation, that should help resolve this.

Comment 3 codingkoopa 2020-04-16 22:26:08 UTC

- "/usr/bin/code-oss --no-sandbox --new-window" opens a new empty window of VS Code. "Warning: 'sandbox' is not in the list of known options, but still passed to Electron/Chromium." is printed to the console.
- "/usr/bin/code-oss --no-sandbox --new-window %F" opens a new empty window of VS Code, with "%F" (literally) opened as a new file. I do still call this a "new empty window" because of it launching without opening the most recent directory, which is what it can be configured to do when launched without the "--new-window" switch. The same string as before is printed to the console.

> How can an action take a filepath, that sounds wrong, but I assume we would parse it out.
It doesn't make sense to me either, but it does seem to be valid under the specification. "Action keys" (https://specifications.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-latest.html#extra-actions-keys) simply refers to the Exec key as it's used normally, under which "%F" is valid. desktop-file-validate doesn't say that there are any issues with it either.

Comment 4 Christoph Feck 2020-04-28 06:31:03 UTC

Information was added with comment 3; changing status for inspection.

Comment 5 codingkoopa 2020-08-15 16:24:52 UTC

No longer able to reproduce. The "New Empty Window" action works without issue, as I test it right now. Aside from the "Icon" key of the desktop entry being changed to "com.visualstudio.code.oss", the desktop entry doesn't seem to have changed since I opened this bug.

Comment 6 Nate Graham 2020-08-18 16:38:32 UTC

Cool, thanks.