Host programms not runnable from flatpak darktable

[hcw70]

Main reason for me to use lua scripts is to be able to

• open image in gimp
• Create HDR Image
• Reveal in file browser

However, when trying any of these lua scripts, they are blocked by not able to find the associated executable in the flatpak sandbox, however the host apps are installed and work flawlessly.

Recently i came across a solution based on

https://github.com/flathub/org.gnu.emacs/issues/14

where the app can be started by flatpak-run. This now works for me for HDRMerge, since i modified the file HDRMerge.lua like this:

local function BuildExecuteCmd(prog_table) --creates a program command using elements of the passed in program table
  local result = 'flatpak-spawn --host '..CleanSpaces(prog_table.bin)..' '..CleanSpaces(prog_table.arg_string)..' '..CleanSpaces(prog_table.images_string)
  return result
end

and added the dbus permission using flatseal to darktable.

This works perfectly, but needs to be done for every script which calls a host executable.

However it would be impractical to modify all scripts to also work in flatpak also.

Proposal

Extend function 'dtutils.system.external_command() to prepend the string "'flatpak-spawn --host " to the exec command when running in flatpak environments.

Or add a new command "external_host_command()" which has these semantics, when the former should not be modified....

[hcw70]

Anyone from the flatpacker / darktable team had a look at this?

[hcw70]

Maybe @turbogit ?

This would help alot to let most of the currently non-functional flatpak plugins be fixed...

[paperdigits]

The lua plugins are their own git repo, the community can fork them and do this work.

Part of the problem is that not everyone is running all flakpaks. Many have a mixed environment of flatpaks and non flatpaks, so just converting everything to call flatpaks or not won't solve it for all users.

On October 31, 2022 7:02:42 AM PDT, Hauke Wintjen @.***> wrote:

Maybe @turbogit ?

This would help alot to let most of the currently non-functional flatpak plugins be fixed...

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[TurboGit]

No sorry, I'm not the good guy for this because I don't really use Lua nor I do use flatpak.

[rrenomeron]

What's needed in the flatpak is to allow the trick that enables running an executable from the host from the sandboxed darktable. I've confirmed that if you run darktable like this:

flatpak run --talk-name=org.freedesktop.Flatpak org.darktable.Darktable 

And I update my lua script to run flatpak-spawn --host exiftool instead of exiftool, then I can run exiftool successfully in the script.

There's work to do on the lua side, yes, but that can't be done until the flatpak is updated to allow it. Since it (appears to be) a one-liner, I'll put together a quickie PR for more discussion.

[hfiguiere]

The linter has spoken anyway.

[hcw70]

@rrenomeron Thanks for your try, but unfortunately it was closed. So my problem remains unsolved. I have no concerns running host tools from within darktable flatpak, since i am using darktable flatpak to easier stay up to date.

But not letting it call host tools breaks most lua scripts.

And adding all these host tools into darktable flatpak is not an option IMHO, since that will make the flatpak bigger without need (since most people dont need all scripts working). (See https://github.com/flathub/org.darktable.Darktable/pull/98 where including exiftool increases the image by about 60MB).

[paperdigits]

You'd need to edit the lua scripts to use flatpak spawn, since there seems to be no appetite to package the lua scripts: https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/flatpak-spawn.1.html

On August 14, 2023 2:26:34 AM PDT, Hauke Wintjen @.***> wrote:

@rrenomeron Thanks for your try, but unfortunately it was closed. So my problem remains unsolved. I have no concerns running host tools from within darktable flatpak, since i am using darktable flatpak to easier stay up to date.

But not letting it call host tools breaks most lua scripts.

And adding all these host tools into darktable flatpak is not an option IMHO, since that will make the flatpak bigger without need (since most people dont need all scripts working). (See https://github.com/flathub/org.darktable.Darktable/pull/98 where including exiftool increases the image by about 60MB).

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[hcw70]

You'd need to edit the lua scripts to use flatpak spawn, since there seems to be no appetite to package the lua scripts: https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/flatpak-spawn.1.html

Yes, that is exactly what i did (at least for the scripts what i use). But to make life not harder as needed for others, providing a solution by the flatpackers is what is needed IMHO.

[paperdigits]

That sounds like an excellent contribution you could make!

On August 15, 2023 5:22:54 AM PDT, Hauke Wintjen @.***> wrote:

You'd need to edit the lua scripts to use flatpak spawn, since there seems to be no appetite to package the lua scripts: https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/flatpak-spawn.1.html

Yes, that is exactly what i did (at least for the scripts what i use). But to make life not harder as needed for others, providing a solution by the flatpackers is what is needed IMHO.

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[hcw70]

@paperdigits But what is needed is an extension in darktable, or the lua api of that, to detect if we are in a flatpak. As stated in my proposal. I am unable to add that extension, so this issue was raised...

[paperdigits]

You don't need that at all. You can package the lua scripts and include a patch that modifies the code as necessary.

On August 15, 2023 7:35:42 AM PDT, Hauke Wintjen @.***> wrote:

@paperdigits But what is needed is an extension in darktable, or the lua api of that, to detect if we are in a flatpak. As stated in my proposal. I am unable to add that extension, so this issue was raised...

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[hcw70]

You don't need that at all. You can package the lua scripts and include a patch that modifies the code as necessary. …

But if i modify the lua scripts to include the flatpak-spawn command, that will break on non-flatpak builds (debian packages, windows, MacOs ...). So my proposal (see above) was to include the handling into 'dtutils.system.external_command()' (see above) which may detect if it is inside a flatpak, then do flatpak-spawn, else do a exec().

So all scripts would be runnable without modifications on all platforms, and there is a single-place of implementation for this.

Otherwise (as it is currently) all lua scripts which exec an external command will fail in flatpak.