tramp getting triggered inside local fedora-toolbox container

[juhp]

(I don't really use tramp anymore - probably I am doing it wrong, but I mostly find it annoying to deal with.)

But tramp is getting autotriggered for me in ghostel.
This makes ghostel basically completely unusable in my setup.

(I tried moving my .bashrc, but that didn't help - also disabling git-ps1, but also no luck.)

Is there a simple way to disable the tramp (or remote) "auto-detection"? Or how to sort this out?

I am running emacs (and hence ghostel) inside a fedora-toolbox container.
I think the problem is something like the hostname is "toolbx" (not listed in /etc/hosts) and HOSTNAME is "fedora" (also not listed).

In particular: I see default-directory is "/scp:fedora:/home/jens/" inside ghostel.

I guess I am not particularly expecting ghostel necessarily decipher this situation, but a simple way to disable "auto-tramp" would be good. Well a simple workaround could be to add a ghostel-local-hosts-list perhaps?

Any hints? (Not sure if it is ghostel.bash or ghostel.el)

[dakra]

Thanks for your good diagnostics.
It was indeed a bash gethostname / $HOST mismatch (fish and zsh don't have that problem).
Should be fixed on main, can you try?
Thanks 🙏

[juhp]

I downloaded ghostel.bash but afraid it is still happening for me.

Right now I made this tweak locally to workaround the problem:

--- ghostel-20260513.2052/ghostel.el.orig	2026-05-15 13:44:54.177695168 +0800
+++ ghostel-20260513.2052/ghostel.el	2026-05-15 21:19:44.443047627 +0800
@@ -5451,6 +5451,7 @@
   (or (null host)
       (string= host "")
       (eq t (compare-strings host nil nil "localhost" nil nil t))
+      (eq t (compare-strings host nil nil "fedora" nil nil t))
       (eq t (compare-strings host nil nil (system-name) nil nil t))
       (eq t (compare-strings
              host nil nil

[alternateved]

I run Emacs in Fedora toolbox container as well. Before that fix default-directory was ssh:<something>. After that fix default-directory is /var/home/<something> so at least in my case this is changed.

My tramp customization:

(use-package tramp
  :ensure nil
  :custom
  (tramp-default-remote-shell "/bin/bash")
  (tramp-terminal-type "tramp")
  (tramp-default-method "ssh")
  (tramp-verbose 6))

(I guess because of tramp-default-method I had ssh, as scp is the default)

[dakra]

@juhp can I have a few more infos? In your ghostel buffer run:

echo "bash:     $BASH_VERSION"
echo "VERSINFO: ${BASH_VERSINFO[0]}.${BASH_VERSINFO[1]}"
echo "hostname: $(hostname)"
echo "HOSTNAME: $HOSTNAME"
echo "captured: $__ghostel_host"
_p='\H'; echo "\\H=${_p@P}"
_p='\h'; echo "\\h=${_p@P}"
declare -f __ghostel_osc7

also the output of M-: (system-name) and M-x ghostel-debug-info.

I could also provide some ghostel-local-hosts defcustom to basically have your solution.
But the reason I haven't done that yet is that I think it should work out of the box and would only add
another setting if absolutely necessary.

[juhp]

(I tried again with ghostel-20260515.1050 but got the same result again in my current toobox.)

However within a fedora 44 VM: it is working normally inside toolbox. Hmm, ah HOSTNAME is "toolbx" there.

In fact in a fresh new up-to-date fedora-toolbox on my machine, HOSTNAME is also "toolbx" now - so it looks to me like this was fixed recently in toolbox or the fedora-toolbox image(s) somehow. So perhaps we could close this then, if it can't be reproduced in recent toolbox containers at least. I can move to a fresh toolbox for this.

---

Anyway for completeness here is my output in my current old toolbox daily-driver, where as noted and you see HOSTNAME is "fedora", which was also the case in earlier fedora-toolbox:43 and previously:

2⬢F45~$ echo "bash:     $BASH_VERSION"
echo "VERSINFO: ${BASH_VERSINFO[0]}.${BASH_VERSINFO[1]}"
echo "hostname: $(hostname)"
echo "HOSTNAME: $HOSTNAME"
echo "captured: $__ghostel_host"
_p='\H'; echo "\\H=${_p@P}"
_p='\h'; echo "\\h=${_p@P}"
declare -f __ghostel_osc7

bash:     5.3.9(1)-release
VERSINFO: 5.3
hostname: toolbx
HOSTNAME: fedora
captured: toolbx
\H=toolbx
\h=toolbx
__ghostel_osc7 ()
{
    printf '\e]7;file://%s%s\a' "$__ghostel_host" "$PWD"
}

M-: (system-name)  ==>  "toolbx"

=== ghostel-debug-info ===
--- System ---
Emacs version:       30.2
System type:         gnu/linux
System config:       x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu
Window system:       pgtk
Display pixel size:  1920x1200
Char size:           9x20 px
Native comp:         yes

--- Ghostel ---
Package version:     nil
Min module version:  0.26.0
Library path:        /var/home/petersen/.emacs.d/elpa/ghostel-20260515.1050/ghostel.elc
Resource root:       /var/home/petersen/.emacs.d/elpa/ghostel-20260515.1050/
Module loaded:       yes
Module version:      0.26.0
Module file:         /var/home/petersen/.emacs.d/elpa/ghostel-20260515.1050/ghostel-module.so
Module size:         1761376 bytes
Module modified:     2026-05-16 15:31:44

--- Frame ---
Frame size:          79x36 (cols x rows)
Frame pixel size:    752x720
Tab-bar lines:       0
Tool-bar lines:      0
Menu-bar lines:      1 (menu-bar-mode on)
Internal border:     0 px
Background mode:     dark
Enabled themes:      (none)

--- Environment ---
Spawn env (set by ghostel, remote spawn):
  INSIDE_EMACS=ghostel
(TERM/TERMINFO/TERM_PROGRAM/COLORTERM not pushed for remote
 spawns — set by the on-remote /bin/sh -c preamble; see
 Process → Command, or run M-x ghostel-debug-ghostel and
 inspect the captured wrapper script.)
Pass-through (from Emacs):
  LANG=C.utf8
  LC_ALL=
  LC_CTYPE=
(user dotfiles may modify these at runtime)

--- Buffer ---
Buffer name:         *ghostel: F45:~*
Major mode:          ghostel-mode
Default directory:   /scp:fedora:/var/home/petersen/
Remote:              /scp:fedora:
TRAMP method:        scp
Active minor modes:  auto-composition-mode auto-compression-mode auto-encryption-mode blink-cursor-mode column-number-mode electric-indent-mode file-name-shadow-mode global-eldoc-mode global-font-lock-mode global-git-gutter-mode global-whitespace-mode iswitchb-mode line-number-mode magit-auto-revert-mode menu-bar-mode minibuffer-regexp-mode mouse-wheel-mode projectile-mode save-place-mode savehist-mode show-paren-mode size-indication-mode tooltip-mode transient-mark-mode

--- Process ---
PID:                 1476122
Status:              run
Command:             /bin/sh -c stty -nl sane iutf8 -ixon erase '^?' rows 20 columns 79 2>/dev/null; printf '\033[H\033[2J'; exec /bin/bash --posix
TTY:                 /dev/pts/1
Configured shell:    /bin/bash
Detected shell type: bash
Shell integration:   t
TRAMP integration:   nil

--- TRAMP ---
tramp-version:       2.7.3.30.2
tramp-terminal-type: dumb
direct-async (global):    nil
direct-async (effective): nil
Would dispatch direct-async: no
Multi-hop length:    1
TERM (connection shell): dumb

--- Spawn capture ---
(no capture — buffer was started via plain M-x ghostel.
 Re-spawn under M-x ghostel-debug-ghostel to capture
 the wrapper script, process-environment, first PTY
 output bytes, and first keystrokes.)

--- Window ---
Window body:         79x26 (cols x rows)
Max chars per line:  79
Window start:        512
Window end:          1125
Fringes:             left=10px right=10px outside-margins=nil
Margins:             left=0 right=0
Line numbers:        off
Buffer windows:      1

--- Terminal ---
Term size:           79x27 (cols x rows)
Buffer size:         1124 chars, 48 lines
Point:               1124
DEC 2026 (sync):     off
Alt screen:          no
Force next redraw:   nil
Pending output:      0 chunks
Redraw timer:        none
Coalesce buffer:     0 bytes  timer: none
Input mode:          semi-char

--- Size sync ---
screen-lines:        26.900 → target 26 (term=27) [MISMATCH]
Body rows (frame):   26 (window-body-height — frame chars)
Line height:         frame=20 px  default-font=20 px  default-line=20 px
Body pixels:         cur=538  recorded=540 [redisplay pending]
Window pixels:       cur=558  recorded=560
Bottom gap:          -2 px (540 rendered − 538 body)
Diagnosis:           pending redisplay; hooks will fire
                     on next paint

--- Rendering ---
Default face:        Adwaita Mono 113 regular
Resolved font:       -UKWN-Adwaita Mono-regular-normal-normal-*-15-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1
Frame font:          -UKWN-Adwaita Mono-regular-normal-normal-*-15-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1
line-spacing:        buf=0  default-value=nil  frame=0
face-remapping:      ((default (:foreground "#ffffff" :background "#000000") default))

--- Key encoding (legacy mode) ---
  Backspace     → 0x7f
  C-Backspace   → 0x08
  M-Backspace   → 0x1b 0x7f
  M-f           → 0x1b 0x66
  M-b           → 0x1b 0x62
  C-M-f         → 0x1b 0x06
  C-M-v         → 0x1b 0x16
  C-h           → 0x08

Readline `.inputrc' rules expecting these byte streams:
  "\C-?"     → 0x7f          (Backspace)
  "\C-\b"    → 0x08          (C-Backspace, also C-h in legacy)
  "\eb"      → 0x1b 0x62     (M-b)
  "\e\C-f"   → 0x1b 0x06     (C-M-f)
  "\e\C-v"   → 0x1b 0x16     (C-M-v)

--- Non-default ghostel settings ---
(all settings at defaults)