Re: [Tracker] Tracker hanging on unrecognized files: suggested fix

[Jamie McCracken <jamiemcc blueyonder co uk>]

zer0halo wrote:
> On 11/15/06, *Tshepang Lekhonkhobe* <tshepang gmail com 
> <mailto:tshepang gmail com>> wrote:
>
>
>     Like I mentioned, I'm not done indexing, due to the problem of
>     tracker-extract being stuck on video (DVD backup vob files done with
>     dvdbackup). A workaround was moving the files away from my home
>     directory.
>
>
> I ran into a similar problem with another type of application file (MYOB 
> to be precise) with a .pls extension which Tracker misinterpreted as a 
> video file and hung on, trying to extract non-existant metadata from it.

this is a problem from XDGMime which sometimes misreads other binary 
files as video (nautilus does too sometimes)

we will probably include a safety check to make sure a known video 
extension (mpg/mpeg/avi/mov etc) is present before trying to extract 
metadata.


> Tshepang, rather than moving the files out of your home directory, I 
> suggest you exclude the extension, or path and extension, in 
> ~/.Tracker/tracker.cfg
>
> Jamie, a suggestion:  If Tracker is to become userfriendly for the 
> masses, you might want to consider a Tracker preferences gui which 
> allows users to add/delete certain file extensions and paths without 
> having to hand edit tracker.cfg.

this is planned

> Another suggestion: Would there be a way for Tracker to monitor how long 
> it's taking to index a certain file, and if it's taking too long (ie, 
> 'hanging'), that it would skip the file, and add the file to the list of 
> exceptions (list editable via the preferences gui). Otherwise, as in my 
> and Tshepang's experience, tracker can hang and an unexperienced user 
> might not be able to figure out why or know how to fix it and just 
> conclude tracker is broken.

there's a patch already for this.

Tracker will be immune to crashes or hangs from metadata extractors.

The last issue is memory usage of metadata extractors (video files in 
particular can eat up to 1GB memory if they are incorrectly identified 
by XDGMime) but that can be controlled using setrlimit on linux/freebsd

if someone wants to patch tracker-extract with setrlimit then let me 
know (otherwise I will do it this weekend)


--
Mr Jamie McCracken
http://jamiemcc.livejournal.com/