nautilus does not update free space (or not properly) after delete operation

[Jay S.]

Binary package hint: nautilus

A session of deleting or moving multiple large files (typically one or a few at a time) frequently results in the amount of free space being updated incorrectly. At some stage, the space count does not reflect a delete/move operation at all; this can happen repeatedly, producing a count that diverges noticeably from effective free space. Occasionally, a new delete operation will restore a proper overall count but I fail to see any logic or pattern. I do get the impression it is more likely to happen when moving files between nautilus tabs or over NFS.

The numbers are consistent with the output of df and gparted but disagree with the output of du. At the moment, my home partition (60GB, XFS) reports 49.7GB of free space; du reports only some 900MB actually in use. That is after downloading and deleting/moving some 25GB of files.

The only solution I have found to restore a proper free space count consists in rebooting. None of the following has any effect:
- syncing
- logging out
- closing and restarting nautilus
- killing nautilus
- checking Trash in the .local directory for any lingering files (none)
- manually creating bogus files using dd and deleting them in an attempt to trigger a proper update

Kernel bug?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: nautilus 1:2.32.2.1-0ubuntu13
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon May 9 16:33:14 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64+mac (20110426)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: nautilus
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue you are reporting is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug to the developers of the software by following the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME. If you have done so, please tell us the number of the upstream bug (or the link), so we can add a bugwatch that will inform us about its status. Thanks in advance.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Unfortunately, we cannot work on this bug because your description didn't include enough information. You may find it helpful to read "How to report bugs effectively" http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html. We'd be grateful if you would then provide a more complete description of the problem.

We have instructions on debugging some types of problems at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProcedures

At a minimum, we need:
1. the specific steps or actions you took that caused you to encounter the problem,
2. the behavior you expected, and
3. the behavior you actually encountered (in as much detail as possible).
Thanks!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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