Tracker isn't watching directories for new/changed files

[Derek Chen-Becker]

Binary package hint: tracker

I have tracker configured to watch my home directory and a couple of other directories, as shown by the log:

02 Feb 2010, 09:45:12: Tracker: State change from 'Initializing' --> 'Watching'
02 Feb 2010, 09:45:12: Tracker: User ignored crawls & monitors:
02 Feb 2010, 09:45:12: Tracker: NONE
02 Feb 2010, 09:45:12: Tracker: User monitors being added:
02 Feb 2010, 09:45:12: Tracker: /home/derek
02 Feb 2010, 09:45:12: Tracker: /home/documents
02 Feb 2010, 09:45:12: Tracker: /home/music/complete
02 Feb 2010, 09:45:12: Tracker: User crawls being added:
02 Feb 2010, 09:45:12: Tracker: /home/derek
02 Feb 2010, 09:45:12: Tracker: /home/documents
02 Feb 2010, 09:45:12: Tracker: /home/music/complete

But if I add a new file, tracker doesn't seem to be notified or notice the change:

derek@rocky:~$ echo "This is a test" > test.txt
derek@rocky:~$ tracker-info /home/derek/test.txt
Defaulting to 'files' service
Unable to retrieve data for uri, Service URI '/home/derek/test.txt' not found

If I restart tracker, it re-indexes and finds the file:

Tracker-Message: Checking for statistics changes and signalling clients...
Tracker-Message: Updating 'Text' with new count:4840, old count:4839, diff:1
Tracker-Message: Updating 'Files' with new count:13911, old count:13910, diff:1
Tracker-Message: Stopping statistics cache timeout
Tracker-Message: State change from 'Idle' --> 'Indexing'
Tracker-Message: Starting disk space check for every 10 seconds
Tracker-Message: Queue for module:'files' created items processed, sending first 1000 to the indexer
Tracker-Message: Starting statistics cache timeout
Tracker-Message: Indexer finished in less than one second, 1000 items processed in total (2 indexed)

derek@rocky:~$ tracker-info /home/derek/test.txt
Defaulting to 'files' service
Results: 17 for '/home/derek/test.txt'
  'App:Name' = 'Okteta'
  'App:DisplayName' = 'Okteta'
  'App:GenericName' = 'Hex Editor'
  'App:Exec' = 'okteta -caption "%c" %U'
  'App:Icon' = 'okteta'
  'App:Categories' = 'KDE'
  'App:Categories' = 'Qt'
  'App:Categories' = 'Utility'
  'App:Categories' = 'X-KDE-Utilities-File'
  'File:Name' = 'okteta.desktop'
  'File:Name' = 'test.txt'
  'File:Path' = '/home/derek'
  'File:Mime' = 'text/plain'
  'File:Size' = '15'
  'File:Modified' = '1265129154'
  'File:Modified' = '1265134609'
  'File:Accessed' = '1265134609'

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Feb 2 11:07:58 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/tracker/trackerd
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: tracker 0.6.95-1ubuntu3
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-17.54-generic
SourcePackage: tracker
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-17-generic x86_64

[Derek Chen-Becker (dchenbecker)]

Argh. I was poking around and found that the "EnableWatching" parameter was set to false. I've never edited tracker.cfg, so is there some way that this gets set from the UI?

[savebart (savebart)]

I have noticed this problem since Ubuntu 9.04. Actually, I have not found any way to change "EnableWatching" parameter other than editing tracker.cfg.
It would be great if a control will be added into tracker-preferences UI.