Package: gvfs-backends Version: 1.6.4-3 Severity: important Tags: upstream
This bug can be reproduced by 1. recording a large video file (1000Mb+) using a digital camera, 2. attaching that camera to the PC, 3. open the camera folder that appears on the desktop, then find the video file using the File Browser (nautilus), 4. copy the file onto the desktop by drag and drop. The symptoms are as follows: 1. The entire file is copied into memory before being written to $HOME/Desktop, potentially causing a swap storm or even crashing the PC. Using "top" you can observe the size of the gvfsd-gphoto2 process increasing during the copy operation. 2. The file is apparently downloaded from the camera more than once. 3. The copy progress bar appears, but sits at 0% for some time. I have investigated the first symptom and traced it to code in gvfsbackendgphoto2.c within the gvfs-1.6.4 source package. The function "do_open_for_read_real" is responsible for copying each file from the camera, which is done using code in libgphoto2. The "gp_file_new" function is used to allocate a CameraFile object to temporarily store the data. Unfortunately, "gp_file_new" stores the data entirely in memory: fine for images of a few megabytes, but entirely unsuitable for gigabyte-sized video files. An examination of the command line tool "gphoto2", which also uses libgphoto2, suggests that "gp_file_new_from_fd" would be a more appropriate choice. When "gp_file_new_from_fd" is used instead, the memory usage of gvfsd-gphoto2 remains reasonable. However, this fix just reveals the second problem, namely that each file will be downloaded more than once -- before the progress bar even begins to move. Again, this is not noticeable for small files, but it is a major annoyance for large copies. Furthermore, large copies may never complete, as the operation appears to time out. If the problem were limited to the first symptom, namely the apparent misuse of "gp_file_new", then I could easily suggest a patch. But it appears that there is a deeper design problem, namely that: 1. A file is apparently downloaded from the camera more than once. 2. The copy progress bar appears, but sits at 0% for some time, whilst those copies complete. Further information: 1. The latest upstream version of gvfsbackendgphoto2.c also uses gp_file_new. 2. To my knowledge the bug is not open within Debian, but it has apparently been reported in Ubuntu (note same symptoms): https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gvfs/+bug/782933 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gvfs/+bug/627908 -- System Information: Debian Release: 6.0.1 APT prefers stable-updates APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU core) Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash Versions of packages gvfs-backends depends on: ii gvfs 1.6.4-3 userspace virtual filesystem - ser ii libarchive1 2.8.4-1 Single library to read/write tar, ii libavahi-client3 0.6.27-2+squeeze1 Avahi client library ii libavahi-common3 0.6.27-2+squeeze1 Avahi common library ii libavahi-glib1 0.6.27-2+squeeze1 Avahi glib integration library ii libbluetooth3 4.66-3 Library to use the BlueZ Linux Blu ii libc6 2.11.2-10 Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib ii libcdio-cdda0 0.81-4 library to read and control digita ii libcdio-paranoia0 0.81-4 library to read digital audio CDs ii libcdio10 0.81-4 library to read and control CD-ROM ii libdbus-1-3 1.2.24-4 simple interprocess messaging syst ii libdbus-glib-1-2 0.88-2.1 simple interprocess messaging syst ii libexpat1 2.0.1-7 XML parsing C library - runtime li ii libgconf2-4 2.28.1-6 GNOME configuration database syste ii libglib2.0-0 2.24.2-1 The GLib library of C routines ii libgphoto2-2 2.4.6-3 gphoto2 digital camera library ii libgphoto2-port0 2.4.6-3 gphoto2 digital camera port librar ii libgudev-1.0-0 164-3 GObject-based wrapper library for ii libimobiledevice1 1.0.2-1 Library for communicating with the ii libplist1 1.3-2 Library for handling Apple binary ii libsmbclient 2:3.5.6~dfsg-3squeeze2 shared library for communication w ii libsoup-gnome2.4- 2.30.2-1 an HTTP library implementation in ii libsoup2.4-1 2.30.2-1 an HTTP library implementation in ii libxml2 2.7.8.dfsg-2+squeeze1 GNOME XML library Versions of packages gvfs-backends recommends: ii gnome-keyring 2.30.3-5 GNOME keyring services (daemon and Versions of packages gvfs-backends suggests: ii obex-data-server 0.4.5-1+b1 D-Bus service for OBEX client and -- no debconf information -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected]
