Yazi not previewing images with --chooser-file flag

[Brixy]

What system are you running Yazi on?

Linux Wayland

What terminal are you running Yazi in?

foot version: 1.16.2 -pgo +ime +graphemes -assertions

Yazi version

yazi 0.1.5 (1d1a512 2023-12-05)

Did you try the latest main branch to see if the problem has already been fixed?

Tried, but the problem is still present

Describe the bug

Hi again!

Aerc has a file-picker-cmd, and I switched from fzf to yazi which works very well.

One thing came to my attention:

With

# aerc.conf
[compose]
file-picker-cmd = yazi --chooser-file "%f"

yazi does not preview images.

It's not crucial. Just wanted to give a hint because I don't if it is a yazi issue.

Expected Behavior

Yazi should preview images with or without the --chooser-file flag.

To Reproduce

Within aerc:

• :compose (or key binding)
• Go to main writing area, e.g. with Ctrl + n
• :wp (e.g. for helix or vim)
• :attach -m<enter> (or key binding)

Configuration

No response

Anything else?

No response

[sxyazi]

When I start Yazi with yazi --chooser-file /tmp/foo, my image preview works fine.

I want to know if it works for you in Aerc without including --chooser-file?

[Brixy]

Thank you for getting in touch so quickly.

When I start Yazi with yazi --chooser-file /tmp/foo, my image preview works fine.

So it does with my setup.

I want to know if it works for you in Aerc without including --chooser-file?

No preview images are shown then, either (and of course it is not possible to select files as attachments).

Really just wanted to let you know in case this is important. Don’t invest too much/any work in this otherwise.

[sxyazi]

When I followed your steps and did the final one I got:

stat -m: no such file or directory

[Brixy]

When I followed your steps and did the final one I got:

stat -m: no such file or directory

Thanks! I cannot reproduce this but did some research

• Switched to original aerc config files and just set file-picker-cmd.
• :attach -m was added in aerc 0.14.0 (2023-01-04)
• rg "stat .*": only slightly related in commands/compose/attach.go:

  log.Errorf("failed to stat file: %v", err)

• could not find anything relevant for stat -m asking the search engines.

Not being familiar with rust the only idea I have for the original issue: Maybe some $TMP variable is overwritten by aerc?! Aerc uses /tmp/aerc-… files.

[sxyazi]

Thank you for the pointer. I have reproduced it after upgrading aerc.

Unfortunately, Yazi identified and used the graphics protocol correctly, but aerc's built-in terminal emulator failed to interpret them, resulting in the images not being displayed on the terminal.

And I found this, Tcell with Sixel image format. It seems that aerc doesn't support any graphic protocols currently.

[Brixy]

Ah interesting. Thank you so much for investigating this. I did not know that yazi kind of 'inherits' this.

So this is a pure aerc issue. If you agree I’ll close this issue and provide news here when the aerc issue is solved.

Yazi as a file picker within aerc is fantastic anyways.

---

By the way: As a temporary solution for previewing images in aerc I use this setting within the [filter] section—but just didn’t remember:

image/* = chafa --format symbols -

[sxyazi]

I will add a new config option to Yazi to allow users to manually specify the graphics mode to use, with chafa as a fallback in this scenario.

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