I am unable to launch emacsclient in the current workspace

[prosoitos]

I would like to have 10 workspaces at all time, never more than that. But I don't know how to prevent the creation of new ones.

I have:

(setq exwm-workspace-number 10)
(setq exwm-workspace-switch-create-limit 10)

But many things I do keep creating new ones. For instance, I use Rofi to look for and open files or directory. And those files/directory always open in a new workspace. So if I do this 10 times, I end up with 20 workspaces.

Is there a way to block the creation of new workspaces so that files/directory opened through Rofi would open in the current workspace instead?

Rofi is not the only thing that creates new workspaces. I can't remember right now what else does though. Either way, I always end up with a crazy number of workspaces.

I would love a way to have whatever I do to launch things in the current workspace.

Thank you!!

[ch11ng]

Not sure how you are using rofi but I could not reproduce this issue after playing with this program for a while. So basically after invoking rofi -show run and select an application to run, the window is created right in the current workspace.

[prosoitos]

I do use rofi -show run for applications and indeed, I have no issue with that.

My problem is when I use rofi to open files or directories.

I use a script with the following content:

emacsclient "$(locate home media usr etc run dev var sys proc opt srv | rofi -theme-str '#listview { lines: 17; }' -threads 0 -width 65 -dmenu -i -p "all: ")"

And that opens the file or directory in a new workspace.

[prosoitos]

Notes:

• I have several other scripts, but they all work in a similar fashion.
• I launch those scripts with keybindings thanks to AutoKey, but that shouldn't make a difference.

[prosoitos]

I think that I narrowed the problem down a bit: this has nothing to do with rofi. The problem is with emacsclient.

If I replace emacsclient with mimeo in the above script and open, say, a .xlsx file, libreoffice calc will open in the current workspace. But if I open a text file or a directory, which have emacsclient as the default application, they will open in a new workspace (even though my default application for text files and for directories is emacsclient, not emacsclient -c).

Interestingly, if I run emacsclient file in urxvt, this freezes my machine with "waiting for Emacs..." and I have to do a force shutdown. If however I run emacsclient -c file, the file opens without problem in emacsclient, and of course, in a new workspace.

So it seems that my problem is that I cannot launch emacsclient in the current workspace. It has to be launched in a new workspace (which rofi, somehow, does automatically and which I have to explicitly ask for with -c in the command line). I don't know if this is a bad setting of mine or a window issue with EXWM.

My apologies for mis-identifying the root of the problem and sending you on the wrong path with rofi.

[ch11ng]

Once correctly set, emacsclient can reuse the current workspace to open files. Actually such setting is recommended. Please note (server-start) is required to start a server. Setting VISUAL and EDITOR environment variables is a convenient way to automatically tell other applications to use emacsclient as the editor.

[prosoitos]

I can't see what in my settings is different from your example installation and why I cannot use emacsclient in the current workspace...

I have (server-start) in my init file of course and I can use emacsclient without any problem, but only in a new workspace...

[ch11ng]

Please stop the server with server-force-delete first. If it doesn't help, please try with a minimal configuration.

[prosoitos]

Stopping, then restarting the server does not help.

It seems that it is something in my settings since you cannot reproduce it. So I will try to trouble-shoot on my end. So feel free to close this issue since it is apparently not a bug.

In the meantime, I will bind an easy key to the killing of workspaces.

[ch11ng]

Fine.

[prosoitos]

(of course, if you ever have any thought about what it might be, I will happily take any advice/suggestion you may have which might help me narrow it down).

[prosoitos]

I found it.

The problem was not in my init file.

I had

export VISUAL=emacsclient
export EDITOR="$VISUAL"

in my .xinitrc file

and

if [[ -n $SSH_CONNECTION ]]; then
    export EDITOR='emacsclient'
else
    export EDITOR='emacs'
fi

in my .zshrc file and that was creating havoc.

I removed the entry in my .zshrc file and emacsclient works flawlessly now. And it does indeed open in the current workspace without problem. So that is finally the end of my bazillion workspaces created by rofi :slightly_smiling_face:

[prosoitos]

Running emacsclient directly in the command line still freezes my machine with Waiting for Emacs...

and I have to force shut down.

So there is still something funny going on... But at least, I can use my rofi script to open files now.

[prosoitos]

@ch11ng Actually, I still cannot launch emacsclient if I am not in an Emacs buffer:

• if I am in an Emacs buffer and launch my rofi script (which launches emacsclient) with some AutoKey keybinding, now all works well and the file opens in the current workspace

• if I am not in an Emacs buffer (say, for instance that I am in a browser) and I launch the same rofi script with an AutoKey keybinding, the laptop freezes and I have to force reboot

• if I am in the command line (so again not an Emacs buffer), the same thing happens whether I launch my rofi script or whether I run emacsclient <file>.

Running emacsclient <file> in the cli leaves me with Waiting for Emacs... and I have to force reboot. It did work once, so the behaviour is not totally consistant. But most of the time, it fails.

So there is still something in my settings messing up with emacsclient. Emacs does not seem to be able to take over a non-Emacs window.

[ch11ng]

It's unnecessary to force reboot every time Emacs freezes. Usually do pkill -12 emacs in console would bring Emacs back (and it can tell why Emacs stuck). In worst case pkill -9 emacs can be used to start over.

I'm not sure what does 'command line' / 'cli' refer to here. I've tried terminal emulator / Linux console and in both cases there seems to be no such problem with emacsclient. I'd suggest to narrow down the search by starting with a clean Emacs configuration.

[prosoitos]

It's unnecessary to force reboot every time Emacs freezes. Usually do pkill -12 emacs in console would bring Emacs back (and it can tell why Emacs stuck). In worst case pkill -9 emacs can be used to start over.

When Emacs freezes, I can't do anything on my machine anymore (so I have no access to the console). Not sure if it is because of my settings or because there is some trick I don't know, but I without being able to launch htop or to send any command from the console, the only way out I have found is to force poweroff my machine by a long press on the power button...

Maybe it is because I start Emacs with exec emacs in my .xinitrc file instead of exec dbus-launch --exit-with-session emacs as you suggest in your example configuration? (trying this now and I'll see if it helps).

I'm not sure what does 'command line' / 'cli' refer to here.

I meant a terminal emulator. I use urxvt.

[ch11ng]

Ctrl+Alt+F1...F12 are the default keybindings for switching to virtual terminals 1...12, as documented in the manual page of Xorg(1).

[prosoitos]

Oh, I see. Thank you for this very useful information (I am still a noob with a lot to learn). I will certainly try this next time Emacs crashes!

Having to force a shutdown each time Emacs freezes was the one thing that was making me a little unhappy about having Xorg rely on Emacs with EXWM. So this solves it :slightly_smiling_face: