Re: [Tracker] trackerd modifies the access time of files it indexes

["A. Walton" <awalton gnome org>]

On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 11:48 AM, A. Walton <awalton gmail com> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 11:39 AM, Martyn Russell <martyn imendio com> wrote:
> > On 30/12/08 15:44, Jeff Epler wrote:
> > > As you probably know, Linux since 2.6.8 supports the O_NOATIME flag
> > > specifically to allow indexing programs to avoid changing the access
> > > time of the files it indexes.
> > >
> > > In the 0.6.3 timeframe, the O_NOATIME flag was added in multiple places
> > > to attempt to avoid changing the access time of files merely because
> > > they were accessed:
> > >
> > >     Tracker 0.6.3
> > >     ============= (25 Sep 2007)
> > >       * Many more optimisations - transactions, use of O_NOATIME and
> > >         posix_fadvise everywhere.
> > >     (tracker-svn/trunk/NEWS)
> > >
> > > I'm not sure whether this ever worked, but I discovered that in 0.6.6
> > > on Ubuntu 8.04, trackerd was changing the atime of my ~/mail/* mbox
> > > files, preventing mutt from seeing new mail.  I filed a bug on launchpad
> > > only, not yet on gnome; I also produced a patch against the hardy
> > > package that seems to fix the problem for me:
> > >     https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tracker/+bug/312365
> > >
> > > Before filing a bug on gnome, I looked at the present svn trunk.  I see
> > > that xdgmime has been replaced by gio.  I have not yet tried the svn
> > > version, but I suspect the bug still exists but isn't so easy to fix as
> > > the relevant open() is taking place inside libgio instead of in a
> > > library bundled as source with tracker, and in a standalone program it
> > > could easily be seen that the open() call within g_file_query_info does
> > > not specify O_NOATIME.
> > >
> > > Are you interested in preventing access time modification for indexed
> > > files?  If so, how can I help?  Should I file bugs on gnome bugzilla?
> > > If so, against 0.6.6 or against trunk?
> > >
> > > It seem that gio/glocalfileinfo.c:get_content_type() could be
> > > modified to use O_NOATIME when it is available, either unconditionally
> > > or through a new GFileQueryInfoFlags bit; or
> > > G_FILE_ATTRIBUTE_STANDARD_FAST_CONTENT_TYPE could be used in the call to
> > > g_file_query_info() in tracker-file-utils.c to avoid the open(); or in
> > > some other way I haven't anticipated.
> >
> > Ivan is spot on! We used to use O_NOATIME, I recall it being in the code,
> > but now we use GIO, we don't specify that. I suspect GIO needs fixing here.
>
> Patch is attached for GIO, hopefully will fix this. Will upload to
> Bugzilla whenever it actually starts responding here.

Replying to myself, and for the convenience of the list, here's the bug:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=566064

> -A. Walton
>
> > --
> > Regards,
> > Martyn
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