[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: Potential problems for developers (LONG) ignore if you are happy with the status quo
From:       Waldo Bastian <bastian () kde ! org>
Date:       2001-03-31 20:35:07
[Download RAW message or body]

On Saturday 31 March 2001 00:07, Scott Manson wrote:
> I have "plenty" of memory and sometimes I let my daughter play with the
> stable version (new X session) w/o shutting down my development version
> i.e startx -- :1 ( same user but using a different KDEHOME and different
> KDELIBS which is set using .xinitrc ) which works till fairly well till I
> shut down the daughters session and try to run konqueror which in my best
> estimation of debugging causes and almost infinite kdeinit klauncher (fork
> bomb) type of error i.e trying a ps ax and I get a screenfull (> 25)
> instances of kdeinit klauncher processes that run amok.

I have a bug report about that that claims that it is due to /tmp being full. 
The problem is basically that kdeinit/dcopserver can't establish any 
communications and as a result they can't establish communication with their 
already running predecessors either. So they are kept being launched in order 
to bring the communication framework up and running but fail to do so.

I think that the correct solution would be to add some self-checks that makes 
kdeinit/dcopserver abort if it notices that it wasn't successfull in creating 
its communication channels.

> I was wondering how the "power" developers cope with these kinds of
> problems.

I schedule a fixit-session for a time when I don't care that my box crashes. 
Then I reproduce the problem, apply what I think is the fix, and try if it 
still crashes in that situation. But normally I work on 3 or 4 things in 
paralell so I don't want to crash my box then.

> Maybe my "ideas" on what Linux is all about is all messed up but if I log
> onto 2 different X sessions they shouldn't interfere with each other.

Yes.

> Unless I have libXXXX.so.1 already loaded (and old version) and I start
> another process that sees that I have it already loaded and tries to use
> that instead of loading the "right" (or newer version) is the problem.

Running two different version of KDE in the same session isn't recommended 
and will likely break stuff. Running two different versions of KDE with the 
same users is also not recommended, since config files are not guaranteed to 
be forward compatible. (They should be backwards compatible).

> I am what you could call a "lazy" programmer and absolutely hate the very
> idea of a make clean just because 1 line in 1 file was changed or the other
> pat answer delete the .kde dir.

Yes, that irritates the hell out of. If you need to delete .kde there is 
obviously a bug in an application. By deleting .kde at that point every hope 
for debugging that bug is gone.

Cheers,
Waldo
-- 
bastian@kde.org | SuSE Labs KDE Developer | bastian@suse.com

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]