counsel-find-file with archive file types

[gusbrs]

On a current Emacs, with default settings, when counsel-find-file meets an archive file type (tar, rar, zip, OpenDocument, etc., any extension contained in tramp-archive-suffixes) it is automatically mounted and treated as a directory. As far as I can tell, this happens because ivy-expand-file-if-directory, which is indirectly used by the counsel-find-file machinery, wraps the file name in file-name-as-directory (thus appending a slash to it) and then testing if file-directory-p. But, with tramp-archive active, which it is by default, this predicate will not only mount the file, but also return t, meaning counsel-find-file will navigate inside the archive file, instead of selecting it.

I initially reported this to Emacs itself, in the following bug report: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2022-10/msg00758.html

The stance of Tramp's maintainer, Michael Albinus, on the matter is the following:

There is no need for packages like counsel to check

(file-directory-p (expand-file-name "~/file.odt/"))

It is a misuse to add a slash to an existing regular file and pray that
it works. There has been a similar error in ange-ftp, see bug#56078. It
has fixed. I recommend to contact the counsel author for a fix.

I'd say he's got a point and, either way, that's the upstream position. So, it'd probably be a good idea if file-name-as-directory was dropped from ivy-expand-file-if-directory.

[basil-conto]

I appreciate that ivy-expand-file-if-directory may need fixing, and thank you for reporting it and getting feedback from Michael.

Before that, I'm not clear on something: the bug description makes it sound like continuing file name completion within an archive as if it were a directory is a bad thing, but is it always so?

I can imagine at least some users finding this a useful feature, so it would be a shame to lose it if that is what you are suggesting.

I just tried a couple of file name completions: I couldn't get counsel-find-file to enter .odt files, but I could get it into a .zip archive by using C-j (ivy-alt-done). By contrast, C-m (ivy-done) selects the .zip in the same way that vanilla Emacs completion does.

Given that I can choose between entering (C-j) or not entering (C-m) the .zip archive during counsel-find-file completion OOTB, I'm not sure exactly what you are suggesting Ivy should do here (except for making ivy-expand-file-if-directory better behaved if possible).