HUD doesn't close its searches properly

[Sami Jaktholm]

If you perform a search and exit the HUD by
a) choosing a result with you mouse or keyboard or
b) clicking outside HUD area
the HUD doesn't close its search properly.

By examining DBus traffic it seems that Unity starts a new empty search after CloseQuery is called. Then every time the active window is changed, hud-service will load the menus (if necessary) and perform a search against the menu structure consuming precious CPU power and forcing applications that don't export their menus fully at startup (firefox for example) to map their menus into DBus.

However if you close the HUD by pressing Escape twice (first to clear the search, then to close the HUD), the query is closed properly.

Steps to reproduce:
#1: Start monitoring hud-service DBus activity: $ dbus-monitor "interface='com.canonical.hud'"
#2: Open HUD and perform a search
#3: Close HUD by clicking outside the HUD area with your mouse (notice how Unity first calls CloseQuery and then StartQuery)
#4: Start switching between applications (notice how HUD sends UpdatedQuery signals indicating it's doing something)

If you watch com.canonical.dbusmenu interface ($ dbus-monitor "interface='com.canonical.dbusmenu'") you'll see how HUD sends 'opened' and 'closed' events to applications and loads menus if not yet loaded.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: unity 5.16.0-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-30.48-generic 3.2.27
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-30-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu13
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,imgpng,vpswitch,gnomecompat,screenshot,grid,resize,move,text,mousepoll,snap,regex,place,wall,shift,session,animation,workarounds,fade,expo,scale,unityshell]
Date: Sun Sep 16 17:41:40 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=fi_FI.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-09-09 (7 days ago)

[Sami Jaktholm (sjakthol)]

Similar behavior can be seen in Quantal with unity 6.4.0-0ubuntu6 too.

[Bilal Akhtar (bilalakhtar)]

Nice catch! Successfully reproduced on Quantal. I don't think this loophole causes any performance regression, but it's still an oversight that should be fixed.