GMC apparent "hang" issue

["Mark R. Bowyer" <Moredhel earthling net>]

Hi again,

OK, I've tracked this down with truss.  It doesn't hang forever, and probably 
wouldn't hang at all run anywhere but on a network like this building has.

The truss shows that, every time I change directory, even when I've set every 
Preference I can see that suggests it stops it doing so, it goes off and tries 
to open() and stat() (or in the case of Solaris open64() ) most every directory 
it can find.

On a user's standalone desktop, probably no problem.  On a Workstation in a 
building with multiple servers with multiple DiskArrays, with hundreds of Gigs 
of data automounted all over the shop - not a good idea.

The main issue here seems to be GMC being totally, obsessionally nosey about all 
the directories in /home.  My /home is automounted, and so *looks* like it 
contains the home directories of everyone in this building, plus some (this is 
how Solaris' autofs works.  On a big Intranet, *never* ls -l /net ;O).  They're 
not *actually* there until I try to look in them, but their name exists, and in 
most every case, I have no access permissions to them.  So I see the truss loop 
through trying to open() and stat() every /home/* - I'm pretty sure it does this 
multiple times around the list too before giving up - and getting an EACCES each 
time.  It gets into a few, but that seems to make no difference.

During this time, the GMC window locks up, wont refresh and wont die.  It can 
take up to 5 minutes to come back again. =O(  After this long run though /home/* 
again and again, it finally gives control back to the GUI but apparently 
continues to stat() for a while on files it *can* read under my own home 
directory.

Is this a bug in that selecting "Fast dir reload" doesn't do what it's supposed 
to, or is this hunt around every directory from / to where I'm currently viewing 
done outside of that decision?

There, I started typing this email after having it lock up on me when I clicked 
a "..", and it still hasn't come back yet.  Yes, I still have it trussing into 
another window, but still.  It doesn't help that it occassionally sleeps on one 
of the reads, either =O(

I don't know enough about the structure and methodology of GMC to suggest a fix. 
And since it's probably very rare that this will cause people any pain, I don't 
know if you want to fix it and remove something from other users.  Could you 
maybe find a way to reduce the checking required, and make this a selectable 
preference?

Thanks,

-------My opinion - Not sane, intelligent or necessarily useful-------
o o                                      mailto:Moredhel@earthling.net 
/v\ark R. Bowyer.  http://i.am/Moredhel  mailto:Mark.Bowyer@UK.Sun.COM
`-'                                             I'm the dots in .co.uk