fzf-menu integration crashes with util-linux 2.37.2

[christianknauer]

ble version: 0.4.0-devel4+31f264ad
Bash version: 5.1.16(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)

The column tool from util-linux 2.37.2 (on Ubuntu 22.04.1) does not recognize the placeholder "unlimited" for the -c (--output-width) option.
fzf-menu.bash (in contrib/integration) uses this placeholder (l. 45) and causes a "crash". Changing "unlimited" to "0" fixes the problem.

The column tool from util-linux 2.39.3 (on Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS) does recognize the placeholder (so no crash there).

[akinomyoga]

Thanks for the report. I haven't cared so much about the compatibility in contrib as contrib is originally meant to provide example settings, but I probably need to care about it as we started to document them in detail, and more users start to use them.

The option -c unlimited seems to have been introduced in util-linux/util-linux@35d5d65 for util-linux v2.39. As far as I see the change and the associated discussion util-linux/util-linux#1618, there hadn't been the same feature before v2.39. Specifying -c 0 doesn't produce the error, but it is interpreted differently before v2.39. Rewriting unlimited to 0 would cause other issues in the versions where unlimited is unsupported.

[akinomyoga]

I currently don't have an idea about a better solution other than implementing column by ourselves. For now, I probably need to add util-linux >= 2.39 to the requirements of ble-import fzf-menu.

[christianknauer]

I currently don't have an idea about a better solution other than implementing column by ourselves. For now, I probably need to add util-linux >= 2.39 to the requirements of ble-import fzf-menu.

I think adding the requirement is definitely a good idea. Personally, I am not using fzf-menu since I prefer the built-in selector. Thanks for your great work on ble.sh and for your costant support when something is not perfect!