gdm --version refuses to report version

[B Bobo]

gdm --version on a Gnome Terminal running unprivileged in Mint 8 Helena Main refuses to report the version number. Currently, gdm --help helpfully advises to use gdm --version to get the version number but this seems to assume gdm is not already running. Of course, there are several other ways to get the version number (2.28), but it should also be possible to get it from gdm --version on the command-line even while gdm is already running and managing the display.

When gdm is already running, gdm --version exits with a non-zero status and the following "warning" messages (in fact, they are more than mere warnings; they are clearly error conditions, so calling them "warnings" is wrong):

** (gdm-binary:3235): WARNING **: Failed to acquire org.gnome.DisplayManager: Connection ":1.75" is not allowed to own the service "org.gnome.DisplayManager" due to security policies in the configuration file

** (gdm-binary:3235): WARNING **: Could not acquire name; bailing out

[Clement Lefebvre (clementlefebvre)]

Workaround: "apt version gdm".

What makes you think you can use "gdm --version"? Is this argument somewhere in some man page or documentation?

[B Bobo (yout-bobo123)]

I don't understand why you think this report was incomplete. Quoting the original above:

             "Currently, gdm --help helpfully advises to use gdm --version
              to get the version number ... "

So, I think the answer is yes, running gdm --version is recommended without restriction by gdm's own inline documentation. Nowadays some form of command-line argument such as --version, -version, -V etc is generally supported in almost every gnome or GNU utility for that matter. Either gdm's documentation is wrong or there is a bug. I'm thinking it looks more like a bug, probably a simple one to fix -- I'd send the patch if I could get linux+X working on this pc.

[Clement Lefebvre (clementlefebvre)]

Hi B Bobo, whether this is a bug or not it's upstream to us, so it'll be up to the Ubuntu/GDM devs to decide.

The reason I initially marked it as incomplete was because I couldn't assess whether this was a feature request or indeed a bug. Let me explain:

- If the documentation or the man page referred to "gdm --version" and this argument didn't work, then that would be a bug.
- If the documentation or the man page did not refer to "gdm --version", then it would be a feature request, and this bug report would be marked as invalid.

Thanks,
Clem.

[lsw (lwasserm-sdf)]

As of January 8 2012 this but is still present. Using gdm in ubuntu 10.4

[B Bobo (yout-bobo123)]

With ppa:xorg-edgers and gdm 3.0.4, gdm --version is reporting the version number. However, I can't find any upstream bug report which would confirm whether the bug has been fixed. Could somebody else please verify whether this bug is still present in other distros and other versions of gdm?