Yelp: "I/O error : Is a directory"

[Peter Hendrickson]

Binary package hint: yelp

When I run Yelp and then do a search, I get two messages saying "I/O error: is a directory." For example:
> $ gnome-help ghelp:///usr/share/gnome/help/evince/C/evince.xml
> I/O error : Is a directory
> I/O error : Is a directory

(Note that gnome-help is linked to yelp.)

I did a trace and it looks like at least one of the errors is because "/usr/share/doc/doc-base/doc-base.html" is a directory. (See attached excerpt.) (Could it be that Yelp is not expecting a directory to have type ".html"?)

My version of Ubuntu:
> $ lsb_release -rd
> Description: Ubuntu 8.10
> Release: 8.10

This is my version of Yelp:
> $ apt-cache policy yelp
> yelp:
> Installed: 2.24.0-0ubuntu2
> Candidate: 2.24.0-0ubuntu2
> Version table:
> *** 2.24.0-0ubuntu2 0
> 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
> 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

The apparently troublesome directory above belongs to doc-base. This is my version:
> $ apt-cache policy doc-base
> doc-base:
> Installed: 0.8.16
> Candidate: 0.8.16
> Version table:
> *** 0.8.16 0
> 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
> 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[rusivi2 (rusivi2-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for reporting this bug.

Does this still happen in Lucid?

[Peter Hendrickson (pdh-wiredyne)]

The errors have changed.

If I run this command:
> $ gnome-help ghelp:///usr/share/gnome/help/evince/C/evince.xml

Then I immediately get these errors -- without doing more than running the command:
> (gnome-help:6985): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_tool_button_new: assertion `icon_widget == NULL || GTK_IS_MISC (icon_widget)' failed
>
> (gnome-help:6985): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid (NULL) pointer instance
>
> (gnome-help:6985): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_signal_connect_data: assertion `G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed
>
> (gnome-help:6985): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_toolbar_insert: assertion `GTK_IS_TOOL_ITEM (item)' failed
>
> (gnome-help:6985): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_tool_button_new: assertion `icon_widget == NULL || GTK_IS_MISC (icon_widget)' failed
>
> (gnome-help:6985): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid (NULL) pointer instance
>
> (gnome-help:6985): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_signal_connect_data: assertion `G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed
>
> (gnome-help:6985): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_toolbar_insert: assertion `GTK_IS_TOOL_ITEM (item)' failed

If I simply run:
> $ yelp

Then I get these errors:
> (yelp:7060): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_tool_button_new: assertion `icon_widget == NULL || GTK_IS_MISC (icon_widget)' failed
>
> (yelp:7060): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid (NULL) pointer instance
>
> (yelp:7060): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_signal_connect_data: assertion `G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed
>
> (yelp:7060): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_toolbar_insert: assertion `GTK_IS_TOOL_ITEM (item)' failed
>
> (yelp:7060): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_tool_button_new: assertion `icon_widget == NULL || GTK_IS_MISC (icon_widget)' failed
>
> (yelp:7060): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid (NULL) pointer instance
>
> (yelp:7060): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_signal_connect_data: assertion `G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed
>
> (yelp:7060): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_toolbar_insert: assertion `GTK_IS_TOOL_ITEM (item)' failed

My current version of Ubuntu:
> $ lsb_release -rd
> Description: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
> Release: 10.04

My current version of yelp:
> $ apt-cache policy yelp
> yelp:
> Installed: 2.30.0-0ubuntu2
> Candidate: 2.30.0-0ubuntu2
> Version table:
> *** 2.30.0-0ubuntu2 0
> 500 http://ubuntu.cs.utah.edu/ubuntu/ lucid/main Packages
> 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for yelp (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[rusivi2 (rusivi2-deactivatedaccount)]

In Maverick, performed at the Terminal:

gnome-help ghelp:///usr/share/gnome/help/evince/C/evince.xml

(gnome-help:25991): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_tool_button_new: assertion `icon_widget == NULL || GTK_IS_MISC (icon_widget)' failed

(gnome-help:25991): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid (NULL) pointer instance

(gnome-help:25991): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_signal_connect_data: assertion `G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed

(gnome-help:25991): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_toolbar_insert: assertion `GTK_IS_TOOL_ITEM (item)' failed

(gnome-help:25991): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_tool_button_new: assertion `icon_widget == NULL || GTK_IS_MISC (icon_widget)' failed

(gnome-help:25991): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid (NULL) pointer instance

(gnome-help:25991): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_signal_connect_data: assertion `G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed

(gnome-help:25991): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_toolbar_insert: assertion `GTK_IS_TOOL_ITEM (item)' failed

(gnome-help:25991): IBUS-WARNING **: Connect to unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-2pERQjaBwn,guid=ec20150e02bb3c77d1e9a10100000036 failed: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-2pERQjaBwn: Connection refused.

yelp opened successfully with information on Evince. While the command itself does not cause problems, this is more of a request for code meaning cleanup as how can you have errors if you get what you expected running the command?! The next step is to link an upstream bug to this one found via a search https://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?query_format=specific&order=relevance+desc&bug_status=__open__&product=Yelp&content= or if not found create a new bug via https://bugzilla.gnome.org/enter_bug.cgi

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that should be reproducible with the live environment of the Desktop CD of the development release - Oneiric Ocelot. It would help us greatly if you could test with it so we can work on getting it fixed in the next release of Ubuntu. You can find out more about the development release at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/ . Thanks again and we appreciate your help.

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

I am unable to duplicate this in Ubuntu Oneric. I ran gnome-help ghelp:///usr/share/gnome/help/gnome-terminal/C/gnome-terminal.xml without errors. I also checked evince, but evince's help has been ported to the new Mallard format.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for yelp (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]