?all tabs deleted in one panel - two occurrances

[crconner]

TC32 beta 6, Win7x64. For the second time in a few days, all of a sudden all my tabs (except for 1) have been deleted in one or the other panels.

The first time, I had about 15 or so tabs opened in the left panel (and about the same number in the right panel). All of a sudden, when I went back to TC, ALL but one tab in the left panel had been deleted.

Now, a few days later, it happened again. This time I had only 5 tabs in left, and about 15 or so in right panel. All of a sudden, in the right panel, all tabs have been deleted except for one in the right panel.

When I saw this, I did absolutely nothing further in this TC process (i.e. no closes, no buttons, no nothing). I immediately went into an old version of TC, and copied the wincmd.ini to a backup file.

I examined this backup file, and found that I now have TWO sections labeled [lefttabs], and zero sections labeled [righttabs]. Of the two versions of [lefttabs], the first one contains the proper entries for my 5 tabs, followed by 17 lines of garbage (actually, a small subset of ASCII lines from the previous section [ListerPlugins]. Then, following the first [lefttabs] section with added garbage, wincmd.ini contained another copy of the correct [lefftabs] section. There no longer is any section called [righttabs].

The two [left & right history] sections seem like they are correct.

I will be much more observant in exactly how this happens the next time, so as to try to reproduce it. Right now, this is the best description I can give.

Code: Select all

[lefttabs]
0_path=c:\
0_options=1|0|0|0|0|1|0
1_path=i:\MyDownloader new\NEW\
1_options=1|0|0|0|0|1|0
2_path=H:\Documents\My Files\
2_options=1|0|0|0|0|1|0
3_path=C:\Tcup_1\ini\
3_options=1|0|0|0|0|0|0
4_path=i:\MyDownloader new\
4_options=1|1|0|0|0|1|0
activetab=5
| EXT="STD" | EXT="STI""
9=%COMMANDER_PATH%\plugins\wlx\NFO View\nfoview.wlx
9_detect="FORCE | EXT="NFO" | EXT="DIZ""
10=%COMMANDER_PATH%\plugins\wlx\IniEd\IniEd.wlx
10_detect="ext = "INI" | ext = "REG" | ext="INF" | ext="CFG" | ext="FXI""
11=%COMMANDER_PATH%\plugins\wlx\mMedia\mmedia.wlx
11_detect="MULTIMEDIA"
12=%COMMANDER_PATH%\plugins\wlx\fileinfo\fileinfo.wlx
12_detect="ext="COM"|ext="EXE"|ext="DLL"|ext="SYS"|ext="DRV"|ext="WFX"|ext="WLX"|ext="WCX"|ext="SCR"|ext="VXD"|ext="OCX"|ext="TSP"|ext="TSK"|ext="TLB"|ext="RLL"|ext="OLB"|ext="AX"|ext="ACM"|force"
13=%COMMANDER_PATH%\plugins\wlx\VisualDirSize\visualdirsize.wlx
14=%COMMANDER_PATH%\plugins\wlx\Imagine\Imagine.wlx
14_detect="MULTIMEDIA & (ext="JPG"|ext="JPEG"|ext="GIF"|ext="PNG"|ext="BMP"|ext="PCX"|ext="TGA"|ext="PSD"|ext="TIF"|ext="TIFF"|ext="LBM"|ext="IFF"|ext="FLI"|ext="FLC"|ext="SPR"|ext="PCD"|ext="JPC"|ext="JP2"|ext="J2K"|ext="PBM"|ext="PGM"|ext="PPM"|ext="RAS"|ext="SGI"|ext="RGB"|ext="BW")"
15=%COMMANDER_PATH%\plugins\wlx\ArchView\ArchView.wlx
16=%COMMANDER_PATH%\Plugins\wlx\Font\Font.wlx
16_detect="ext="TTF"|ext="TTC"|ext="OTF"|ext="FON"|ext="PFM""
17=%COMMANDER_PATH%\plugins\wlx\TxQuickView\TxQuickView.wlx
17_detect="MULTIMEDIA"
[lefttabs]
0_path=c:\
0_options=1|0|0|0|0|1|0
1_path=i:\MyDownloader new\NEW\
1_options=1|0|0|0|0|1|0
2_path=H:\Documents\My Files\
2_options=1|0|0|0|0|1|0
3_path=C:\Tcup_1\ini\
3_options=1|0|0|0|0|0|0
4_path=i:\MyDownloader new\
4_options=1|1|0|0|0|1|0
activetab=5

[crconner]

Still in the malfunctioning TC process with the garbaged up wincmd [lefttabs] section, I added one tab into the right panel. Then I closed the TC process. Looking into the newly written wincmd.ini file, I find that the garbaged up [lefttabs] section was deleted. So I was left with a good [lefttabs] section, and the (newly) correct [righttabs] section.

Code: Select all

[lefttabs]
0_path=c:\
0_options=1|0|0|0|0|1|0
1_path=i:\MyDownloader new\NEW\
1_options=1|0|0|0|0|1|0
2_path=H:\Documents\My Files\
2_options=1|0|0|0|0|1|0
3_path=C:\Tcup_1\ini\
3_options=1|0|0|0|0|0|0
4_path=i:\MyDownloader new\
4_options=1|1|0|0|0|1|0
activetab=5
[righttabs]
0_path=c:\
0_options=1|1|0|0|0|1|0
1_path=H:\Documents\My Files\! Software\Editors\! Notepad++  (free)\
1_options=1|1|0|0|0|0|0
activetab=1
activelocked=1

[crconner]

I got it to fail a third time. I opened 44 tabs in the left panel. Then I closed TC. When I opened it again, all but one tab had been deleted in the left panel. But, several attempts at duplicating it a fourth time have not worked. I opened up many tabs in the left panel, without a failure upon restarting TC each time. I quit at 80 tabs.

[crconner]

More specifically to get this third failure, I performed the following (purely as a test for TC, so no other work or clicks were done):

1. I started TC 8.50 beta6.
2. In the right panel, there were about a dozen folders. I kept this as my active panel at all times.
3. I performed a cm_OpenDirInNewTabOther (CTRLShiftUp) on each of the folders in the right panel, until I had 15 tabs opened up in the left panel.
4. I closed TC, and restarted it. When it opened, all the tabs were still there.
5. I added more left panel tabs to get to 25 tabs; of course, I had to start going through the dozen right panel folders several times. I restarted TC, all the tabs were there.
6. I opened up more left panel tabs, until I got to 44 tabs. I closed TC, and restarted it. This time, all the left panel tabs were gone, except for one single tab.

Unfortunately, I cannot seem to duplicate this again. I stopped at 87 tabs in left panel, and 27 in right panel.

I think it has something to do with lots of tabs in a panel, but I am not sure. I've tried navigating to different tabs throughout the process in order to repeat this again, but so far to no avail.

[ghisler(Author)]

all of a sudden all my tabs (except for 1) have been deleted in one or the other panels.

Unfortunately I have never had this problem, but I'm not using that many tabs (about 5-10 per panel). Does anyone else have similar problems?

[siealex]

First check your hardware, it looks like damaged RAM chips.

[Bluestar]

Cannot reproduce it either - created 500 tabs programatically, closed TC & restarted it (it took a while to load ) - all of them were recalled correctly.

(TC8.50ß7x32)

[umbra]

I have seen similar behavior before. Sometimes, but not every time, when I move my wincmd.ini to a new computer, TC ignores already exiting sections and adds them to the file again. Also, I have a feeling I saw a similar bug report a year ago, but I'm not completely sure about that.

[crconner]

I have been trying hard to reproduce this. It has in fact happened about four more times than I last reported. But I no longer think that the number of tabs opened has anything to do with the problem.

I now believe that it has something to do with PlugIn Manager v2.2.7 executing at the same time. And, I think, but I am not sure, that the [ListerPlugins] section in wincmd.ini must immediately precede the [lefttabs] section. Also, PlugIn Manager had Lister selected. For testing, I set the refresh rate on PlugIn Manager to 1 second.

It has been very frustrating trying to faithfully reproduce this. It just seems to happen sporadically. But it is still happening, just every once in a while.

[petermad]

2crconner
The latest version of Plugins Manager is 2.2.8 - maybe you should try this.

[white]

2crconner
I don't know if it's relevant, but what is the encoding of the ini file? Is it ANSI or a unicode variant?

[crconner]

Hi, thanks for the responses.

1. Both TC and PlugIn Manager write to wincmd.ini. Right now, my best guess (and that's all it is) is that somehow their reading/writing to wincmd.ini are colliding (that is, interfering) with each other.

2. I didn't want to upgrade PlugIn Manager just yet to the really new v2.2.8, as I was hoping to identify the cause of the problem. I hate bugs that just appear once in a while. It's like intermittent problems in electronics. It's best to find the causes before you make too many changes. Else, experience has shown me that those same problems usually rear their ugly head later on and cause worse problems.

Once I can reasonably reproduce the problem, I will change to 2.2.8 and see if that helps.

3. Wincmd.ini is ANSI.

[MarcinW]

I don't know what is the current behavior, but maybe TC should use exclusive file access when reading or writing to wincmd.ini and wcx_ftp.ini? And in case of access collision, TC could wait for example 100ms and try again?

[ghisler(Author)]

TC is not using file access - it uses the *PrivateProfile* functions of the operating system to read/write these files.

[MarcinW]

Well, I forgot about this. So I don't know any way to restrict file access to one thread only.

There is a LockFile API function, but it blocks opening of the file (during Read/WritePrivateProfileString) even for the thread that called LockFile.