vlc 100% cpu usage when file doesn't exist

[Jordon Bedwell]

When opening VLC from the command line and being unable to find the file VLC will consume 100% of the CPU usage and retry-reopening it over and over again consuming 100% of the CPU. This can be replicated on Ubuntu 14.04.

---
VLC media player 2.1.2 Rincewind (revision 2.1.2-0-ga4c4876)
VLC version 2.1.2 Rincewind (2.1.2-0-ga4c4876)
Compiled by buildd on orlo.buildd (Mar 24 2014 06:18:54)
Compiler: gcc version 4.8.2 (Ubuntu 4.8.2-17ubuntu1)
This program comes with NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
You may redistribute it under the terms of the GNU General Public License;
see the file named COPYING for details.
Written by the VideoLAN team; see the AUTHORS file.

[Steffen Banhardt (steffenbanhardt)]

I can't reproduce this.
Can you please tell which vlc-packages you've got installed? Please execute this in the terminal and post the output:

dpkg -l | grep '^ii.*vlc'

Thanks!

[Jordon Bedwell (envygeeks)]

ii libvlc5 2.1.2-2build2 amd64 multimedia player and streamer library
ii libvlccore7 2.1.2-2build2 amd64 base library for VLC and its modules
ii phonon-backend-vlc:amd64 0.7.1-1ubuntu3 amd64 Phonon VLC backend
ii vlc 2.1.2-2build2 amd64 multimedia player and streamer
ii vlc-data 2.1.2-2build2 all Common data for VLC
ii vlc-nox 2.1.2-2build2 amd64 multimedia player and streamer (without X support)

Maybe it's related to my SSD and the fact it can go a million miles an hour?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont (rdenis)]

This is rather probably due to loop or repeat playlist modes. (And then, it is expected behaviour.)

[Jordon Bedwell (envygeeks)]

Indeed it looks to be related to the repeat feature as that fixed it, but I don't know if that is expected behavior as software should behave and this doesn't seem like behaving, could this behavior not be adjusted so that if it detects a single file with a missing over and over again it does not consume the all the CPU and instead just stops?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont (rdenis)]

Some people rely on the fact that a dysfunctional playlist entry will be skipped automatically. Some people rely on the fact that the loop and/or repeat modes do not introduce pauses. And there are no known reliable ways to detect a failing playlist entry.

This has been discussed many times upstream; I don't currently see any solution. Until someone has a concrete patch to propose, this is wontfix.

[Jordon Bedwell (envygeeks)]

Fair enough, I can actually agree with that logic.