Bug 726338 – x11-misc/dmenu needs virtual for x11-misc/rofi [...]

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: UNCONFIRMED ---

[Description Nikita Zlobin 2020-05-31 05:25:48 UTC]

There are now at least two tools with dmenu functionality. One of them is dmenu itself. Second - dmenu > rofi symlink runs rofi in dmenu mode.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. ln -s /usr/bin/rofi /usr/local/bin/dmenu
2. Try something



I did not check all apps, using dmenu, with rofi, For now all I tried is i3-hud-menu (unpackaged), but it's not working correctly (doesn't activate acions).

[Comment 1 Jeroen Roovers (RETIRED) 2020-06-01 18:26:47 UTC]

Neither of dmenu and rofi are developed to mirror each other's features, so this would probably fail with many combinations of either one and their prospective users.

[Comment 2 Nikita Zlobin 2020-06-02 06:24:23 UTC]

dmenu is probably unaware of rofi, because it's origin of its class.
Rofi's menu mode, however, is right for this purpose. At least this example passes:

ls | rofi -dmenu

With 'dmenu' > 'rofi' symlink compatibility should be enough.
could be a reason to add USE=dmenu to rofi (meaning dmenu compat), which would imply "!x11-misc/dmenu" in deps.

[Comment 3 Nikita Zlobin 2020-06-02 06:55:39 UTC]

To be more exact, from rofi man:
The  idea  is  that  the basic usage command-line flags are obeyed, theme-related  flags  are  not.   Besides,  rofi  offers  some  extended  features  (like multi-select, highlighting, message bar, extra key bindings).

I tried to compare for what dmenu switches are supported in rofi:
Dmenu specific:
-i
-l lines
-p prompt
-w windowid

Not specific:
-m monitor
From man:
       -m num
       -m name
       -monitor num
       -monitor name
Not here:
-b (bottom)
-f (grab input until ready)

[Comment 4 Nikita Zlobin 2020-06-06 08:33:48 UTC]

I can confirm, tabbed and surf are ok wiht rofi. With only exception - rofi doesn't truly embed itself as requests new tabbed from git, just matches parent's position.