[BUG] The --pulsate parameter does not close even with --auto-close

[cfgnunes]

Hi @v1cont,

First of all, thank you for your continued work on YAD. It’s an excellent and powerful tool.
Also, I sincerely wish for peace to be established in Ukraine, and I hope you are doing well and staying safe.

Bug description

The --pulsate parameter has different behavior between older and newer versions of YAD.
In older versions (e.g., 0.40.0), the following sequence works correctly. The window stays open for 5 seconds and then closes automatically when "100" is sent to the FIFO.

However, in newer versions, even when adding --auto-close, the window does not close after sending "100".

Steps to Reproduce

mkfifo fifo
tail -f fifo | yad --progress --pulsate --auto-close &
echo "10" >fifo
sleep 5
echo "100" >fifo

Expected behavior

The progress window should close automatically after receiving "100".

Actual behavior (in recent versions)

The window remains open indefinitely, even with --auto-close.

Versions Tested

✅ Working:

• YAD version 0.40.0 (GTK+ 3.24.41) - Ubuntu 24.04
• YAD version 0.40.0 (GTK+ 3.24.49) - Debian 13

❌ Not working:

• YAD version 7.2 (GTK+ 3.24.50) - Ubuntu 25.10
• YAD version 9.3 (GTK+ 3.24.51) - Fedora 43
• YAD version 14.1 (GTK+ 3.24.50) - Arch Linux

Thank you again for your time and dedication!

[cfgnunes]

In addition to the previous report, I’ve also noticed another change in behavior related to the --pulsate parameter.

In older versions of YAD (e.g., 0.40.0), the progress bar would pulsate continuously on its own, just like Zenity does.
In the recent versions, however, it seems that YAD now requires constant input through stdin to keep the bar pulsating, otherwise, the animation stops (or stay very slow).

This is undesirable because it breaks backward compatibility with older scripts and forces unnecessary processing.
It would be ideal if the --pulsate behavior returned to its previous form, where the bar keeps pulsating automatically without needing to feed data to stdin continuously (similar to Zenity’s and kdialog’s behavior).

[v1cont]

yad doesn't close because tail is still working and stdin of yad is still can be readable. the solution is adding --pid=$$ to tail arguments

[v1cont]

In addition to the previous report, I’ve also noticed another change in behavior related to the --pulsate parameter.

In older versions of YAD (e.g., 0.40.0), the progress bar would pulsate continuously on its own, just like Zenity does. In the recent versions, however, it seems that YAD now requires constant input through stdin to keep the bar pulsating, otherwise, the animation stops (or stay very slow).

This is undesirable because it breaks backward compatibility with older scripts and forces unnecessary processing. It would be ideal if the --pulsate behavior returned to its previous form, where the bar keeps pulsating automatically without needing to feed data to stdin continuously (similar to Zenity’s and kdialog’s behavior).

as for me continuous pulsating is a wrong behavior. progress bar must show progress. no data - no progress

[cfgnunes]

as for me continuous pulsating is a wrong behavior. progress bar must show progress. no data - no progress

Hi @v1cont !!

Thanks for your feedback. I understand that a progress bar typically represents measurable progress.

From my perspective (and how other applications handle it) the --pulsate option is meant for situations where progress is indeterminate, and it’s not possible to estimate completion.

In my project, https://github.com/cfgnunes/fm-scripts, this happens frequently because files are processed in parallel, making it difficult to calculate exact progress. In these cases, a pulsating bar provides feedback that something is happening, rather than leaving the user uncertain.

So the idea isn’t to replace measurable progress, but to offer a visual cue when progress can’t be determined.

[v1cont]

imo, progress can't be determined when you cannot calculate waiting and arrived parts of incoming data

but maybe i should add an option for continuous pulsating

[cfgnunes]

i should add an option for continuous pulsating

If you added that option, it would be amazing!
Thank you so much for considering it!

Also, it would be very useful if the dialog closed automatically when receiving the string "100%". This behavior helps a lot in practical use cases.

[cfgnunes]

the solution is adding --pid=$$ to tail arguments

Hi @v1cont!

I just wanted to add a bit more context on why this solution may not be suitable for every scenario.

While adding --pid=$$ does make tail exit automatically when the parent process dies (thus releasing YAD’s stdin), there are some practical limitations:

Many scripts don’t call tail directly. In more complex pipelines, tail may be wrapped inside functions, subshells, multiple pipes, or intermediate tools that transform the output before sending it to YAD. In these cases, simply adding --pid=$$ doesn’t work because $$ inside a subshell does not refer to the PID of the main script, but the PID of the subshell itself, making the auto-termination mechanism unreliable.

Another common limitation appears when the script doesn’t control the lifecycle of tail. For example, when a FIFO is being written by external or parallel processes, or when tail -f is used as a continuous event stream. In these cases, automatically killing tail is not desirable, or tail needs to stay alive even after the YAD window closes, making --pid unsuitable.

Also, there are scenarios where YAD is launched by other programs (file managers, extensions, daemon helpers, event-driven scripts, etc.). In those situations, the correct PID to monitor is not necessarily $$, but the PID of the original parent process that triggered the whole chain. Often, this PID isn’t easily accessible or even propagated, making it impossible to determine the correct value for --pid.

For all these reasons, although tail --pid=$$ works well in simple scripts, it doesn’t cover more advanced, legacy, or portable workflows, especially when broader compatibility or more complex processing chains are involved.

---

Thank you, sincerely, for your work and for your willingness to maintain YAD with such dedication. I really appreciate your time, your patience, and your openness to feedback. I hope you are safe and well in Ukraine, and I truly wish you all the best. 🇺🇦

[v1cont]

i should add an option for continuous pulsating

If you added that option, it would be amazing! Thank you so much for considering it!

Also, it would be very useful if the dialog closed automatically when receiving the string "100%". This behavior helps a lot in practical use cases.

0e1efd2

[cfgnunes]

Hi @v1cont,

I’ve tested the latest version from commit 0e1efd2, and first of all, thank you for adding the new --continuous parameter.

With this update, the progress bar is now pulsating (still very slowly, but at least it’s moving), so that part is improved.

However, the main issue is still present: the dialog does not close automatically after sending echo "100" to the FIFO, unlike in older versions of YAD.

Here is the test script I used:

mkfifo fifo
tail -f fifo | yad --progress --pulsate --continuous --auto-close &
echo "10" >fifo
sleep 5
echo "100" >fifo

Even with the new behavior, the window remains open, so the bug is still reproducible on my side.

Also, I would like to mention that the pull request submitted by @mg-dev25 (#315) did fix the issue during testing, although it was not merged.