uigetfile and uiputfile return wrong directory with native file dialogs

[cyberkhalil]

hello , is it my problem or a bug in uigetfile()

uigetfile() returns my work path not the path for the file i choose.

documentation says about uigetfile() : Open a GUI dialog for selecting a
file and return the filename fname, the path to this file fpath, and the
filter index fltidx.

Octave version 5.1.0

>> [filename, folder] = uigetfile();
>> folder
folder = /home/khalil2535/Octave/HomeWork's/Homework1/
>> % selected file : /home/khalil2535/Octave/Materials/images/cameraman.tif
>> % my work path /home/khalil2535/Octave/HomeWork's/Homework1/

information about the environment :-
Operating System: Fedora 29
KDE Plasma Version: 5.14.5
Qt Version: 5.11.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.55.0
Kernel Version: 4.20.13-200.fc29.x86_64
OS Type: 64-bit

[cyberkhalil]

I installed octave using flatpak command line , i tried those maybe will be useful for tracking the problem ..

>> ls
"HomeWork's"   Materials
>> ls Materials/images/
cameraman.tif  lena_color_512.tif  mandril_gray.tif   woman_blonde.tif
>> pwd
ans = /home/khalil2535/Octave
>> file = fopen('/home/khalil2535/Octave/Materials/images/cameraman.tif');
>> file
file =  22
>>  is_valid_file_id(file)
ans = 1
>> img = imread('/home/khalil2535/Octave/Materials/images/cameraman.tif');
>> img(1)
ans = 156
>> imshow(img) % it shows the image correctly

[mtmiller]

@khalil2535 Can you confirm that disabling the "Preferences" setting "Use native file dialogs" makes this work for you?

I can confirm this problem with native dialogs enabled (the default), and disabling native dialogs fixes it for me. This may be some flatpak containment problem with the native file dialog plugin.

[mtmiller]

And btw I can confirm with GNOME, so this is not just about the KDE native dialog plugin.

[mtmiller]

And this is specific to Flatpak, can not reproduce in a native build of Octave 5.1.0.

[cyberkhalil]

@khalil2535 Can you confirm that disabling the "Preferences" setting "Use native file dialogs" makes this work for you?

I can confirm this problem with native dialogs enabled (the default), and disabling native dialogs fixes it for me. This may be some flatpak containment problem with the native file dialog plugin.

yes that what's happening with me , it works fine when i disable native file dialogs.

[mtmiller]

Same with uiputfile.

The uigetdir function behaves correctly.

[mtmiller]

Looking at the Octave implementation of these functions, the FPATH output of uigetfile and uiputfile corresponds directly to the Qt QFileDialog::directory() method. This suggests that QFileDialog::directory() may not be returning the containing directory properly with native file dialogs via the Flatpak portal.

[mtmiller]

suggests that QFileDialog::directory() may not be returning the containing directory properly with native file dialogs via the Flatpak portal

I can confirm this with a trivial Qt program, not an Octave bug. Can someone who understands the Flatpak portal and permissions help out here?

[mtmiller]

A simple example Qt project reproducing this behavior is here.

[mtmiller]

And I've reported this Qt bug: https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-77825

Based on my investigation so far, we may want to change Octave to not rely on the directory() method of the dialog, but instead only look at the full file name of the selected file(s).