gimp2 2.6.8 online help does not open

[swebster@…]

If I choose "help" from the help menu I get the following error in a pop up window:

help Message

Could not open 'http://docs.gimp.org/2.6/en/gimp-help.xml'
for reading: Operation not supported

Perhaps you are missing GIO backends and need to install
GVFS?

This is with the help system preferences set to "Use the online version" and to use the web browser. If I install the gimp-user-manual port and choose to use the local version then I get the (outdated) local help successfully. I also tried the +gvfs variant and got the same error message.

This could be an upstream bug or there could be something wrong with the macports gvfs system as suggested by the error. However the URL mentioned in the error is empty. The help manual now seems to be located at ​http://docs.gimp.org/2.6/en/index.html so perhaps the URL is no longer correct, though this is not an xml file.

[mklein-de (Michael Klein)]

This is probably a gvfs issue:

$ gvfs-open http://www.macports.org
gvfs-open: http://www.macports.org: error opening location: Operation not supported

[mklein-de (Michael Klein)]

Cc Me!

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

Is this still a problem with the current version?

[dbevans (David B. Evans)]

Yes, but the error mode has changed from that described.

In GIMP 2.6, this menu selection used gvfs to access the online web site which led to the reported error. The underlying cause is with gvfs (#32652) which still has not been fixed.

By default, GIMP 2.8 now uses the built-in, webkit-gtk based, help browser which successfully accesses the online help server but the URL provided is invalid.

Not Found
The requested URL /2.8/en_US.UTF-8/index.html was not found on this server.
Apache Server at docs.gimp.org Port 80

This is because the online help web site only supports a limited set of locales using the two-letter format only. For example, to get help in English the proper URL is ​http://docs.gimp.org/2.8/en/index.html.

The work around for this is to use the locally installed help (the default help preferences setting, which is now relatively up to date, although this is only available in English.

[mouse07410 (Mouse)]

The work around for this is to use the locally installed help...

And how can one do that with a Macports version of gimp2?

[mascguy (Christopher Nielsen)]

The locally-installed help is opened automatically, when selecting Help -> Help. And per issue:56732, this has been fixed for a while.

So this ticket can be closed.

[mascguy (Christopher Nielsen)]

Per comment:7, this has been fixed for some time. Closing.