[GRASS-dev] [GRASS GIS] #3957: Clicking Help on first screen does nothing

#3957: Clicking Help on first screen does nothing
-------------------------+-------------------------
Reporter: jidanni | Owner: grass-dev@…
     Type: defect | Status: new
Priority: trivial | Milestone:
Component: Startup | Version: unspecified
Keywords: | CPU: Unspecified
Platform: Unspecified |
-------------------------+-------------------------
It's the user's very first use...
{{{
$ grass
}}}
Then click Help. Nothing happens.
Some error message should appear somewhere.

Maybe this help button should be greyed out unless the current screen is
doing a action that has a help page.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/3957&gt;
GRASS GIS <https://grass.osgeo.org>

#3957: Clicking Help on first screen does nothing
--------------------------+---------------------------------
  Reporter: jidanni | Owner: grass-dev@…
      Type: defect | Status: new
  Priority: trivial | Milestone: 7.8.2
Component: Startup | Version: git-releasebranch78
Resolution: | Keywords: help
       CPU: Unspecified | Platform: Unspecified
--------------------------+---------------------------------
Changes (by neteler):

* keywords: => help
* version: unspecified => git-releasebranch78
* milestone: => 7.8.2

Comment:

Replying to [ticket:3957 jidanni]:
> It's the user's very first use...
> {{{
> $ grass
> }}}
> Then click Help. Nothing happens.

That's unexpected. It should open a browser and therein the helptext.html.

It respects the env variable `GRASS_HTML_BROWSER` and, if undefined, it
searches for numerous candidates:
  * see https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/blob/master/lib/init/grass.py#L678

Maybe your's is missing?

> Some error message should appear somewhere.
>
> Maybe this help button should be greyed out unless the current screen is
> doing a action that has a help page.

The question is: which operating system do you use? And: is any web
browser installed?

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/3957#comment:1&gt;
GRASS GIS <https://grass.osgeo.org>

#3957: Clicking Help on first screen does nothing
--------------------------+---------------------------------
  Reporter: jidanni | Owner: grass-dev@…
      Type: defect | Status: new
  Priority: trivial | Milestone: 7.8.2
Component: Startup | Version: git-releasebranch78
Resolution: | Keywords: help
       CPU: Unspecified | Platform: Unspecified
--------------------------+---------------------------------

Comment (by jidanni):

OK, today it is working.
Standard Debian sid install. BROWSER=chromium.
Maybe it is now working because I have initialized the databases, etc.
However a vanilla

{{{
# su - some_vanilla_account
$ DISPLAY=:0 grass
BROWSER=chromium DISPLAY=:0 grass
Starting GRASS GIS...

(gis_set.py:16417): dbind-WARNING **: 01:53:33.208: Couldn't register with
accessibility bus: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the
remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy
blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection
was broken.
}}}
and then clicking Help does nothing.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/3957#comment:2&gt;
GRASS GIS <https://grass.osgeo.org>

#3957: Clicking Help on first screen does nothing
--------------------------+---------------------------------
  Reporter: jidanni | Owner: grass-dev@…
      Type: defect | Status: new
  Priority: trivial | Milestone: 7.8.2
Component: Startup | Version: git-releasebranch78
Resolution: | Keywords: help
       CPU: Unspecified | Platform: Unspecified
--------------------------+---------------------------------

Comment (by jidanni):

Same with
{{{
$ GRASS_HTML_BROWSER=lynx DISPLAY=:0 grass
$ GRASS_HTML_BROWSER=chromium DISPLAY=:0 grass
}}}

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/3957#comment:3&gt;
GRASS GIS <https://grass.osgeo.org>

#3957: Clicking Help on first screen does nothing
--------------------------+---------------------------------
  Reporter: jidanni | Owner: grass-dev@…
      Type: defect | Status: new
  Priority: trivial | Milestone: 7.8.2
Component: Startup | Version: git-releasebranch78
Resolution: | Keywords: help
       CPU: Unspecified | Platform: Unspecified
--------------------------+---------------------------------

Comment (by neteler):

Probably you have to `export` the variables?

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/3957#comment:4&gt;
GRASS GIS <https://grass.osgeo.org>

#3957: Clicking Help on first screen does nothing
--------------------------+---------------------------------
  Reporter: jidanni | Owner: grass-dev@…
      Type: defect | Status: new
  Priority: trivial | Milestone: 7.8.2
Component: Startup | Version: git-releasebranch78
Resolution: | Keywords: help, Debian
       CPU: Unspecified | Platform: Linux
--------------------------+---------------------------------
Changes (by neteler):

* keywords: help => help, Debian
* platform: Unspecified => Linux

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/3957#comment:5&gt;
GRASS GIS <https://grass.osgeo.org>

#3957: Clicking Help on first screen does nothing
--------------------------+---------------------------------
  Reporter: jidanni | Owner: grass-dev@…
      Type: defect | Status: new
  Priority: trivial | Milestone: 7.8.2
Component: Startup | Version: git-releasebranch78
Resolution: | Keywords: help, Debian
       CPU: Unspecified | Platform: Linux
--------------------------+---------------------------------

Comment (by jidanni):

Putting them on the command line exports them.
{{{
$ a=b set|grep a=b
$ a=b env|grep a=b
a=b
}}}

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/3957#comment:6&gt;
GRASS GIS <https://grass.osgeo.org>

#3957: Clicking Help on first screen does nothing
--------------------------+---------------------------------
  Reporter: jidanni | Owner: grass-dev@…
      Type: defect | Status: new
  Priority: trivial | Milestone: 7.8.2
Component: Startup | Version: git-releasebranch78
Resolution: | Keywords: help, Debian
       CPU: Unspecified | Platform: Linux
--------------------------+---------------------------------

Comment (by neteler):

I guess, in your case, it is more related to #3964

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/3957#comment:7&gt;
GRASS GIS <https://grass.osgeo.org>

#3957: Clicking Help on first screen does nothing
--------------------------+---------------------------------
  Reporter: jidanni | Owner: grass-dev@…
      Type: defect | Status: new
  Priority: trivial | Milestone: 7.8.3
Component: Startup | Version: git-releasebranch78
Resolution: | Keywords: help, Debian
       CPU: Unspecified | Platform: Linux
--------------------------+---------------------------------

Comment (by wenzeslaus):

If you have `xdg-open` available, this should just work. It's the default
in `grass.py` for all systems except Windows and macOS.

I'm getting some strange behavior when I actually set the variable:

{{{
GRASS_HTML_BROWSER=firefox grass
GRASS_HTML_BROWSER=chromium grass
}}}

However, in that case, not even g.manual is working. Anybody else
observing this? If yes, can you just open a new issue on !GitHub for that?

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/ticket/3957#comment:10&gt;
GRASS GIS <https://grass.osgeo.org>