gthumb creates / .comments folders and xml files for IPTC

[Mr.Mizzen]

Binary package hint: gthumb

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: AMD64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
gThumb 2.10.11

It took a long time to track down what was creating these folders and files, but they are created when certain files are viewed with gThumb.
I.E. If an image has any IPTC data, gThumb makes a hidden folder and xml file.

Normally I have gThumb set to show Thumbnails and File Name. “Comments” are not selected.

For the sample image:
Selecting File > Properties > Photo Data (EXIF) tab it says:

Software: Adobe Photoshop 7
Date Time: 2002:12:08 etc.
Image Description: <Long text>

This same long text appears on the Comment tab.

Using mapivi to view all the embedded data, it shows:

IPTC : <Long text>
Comments:
EXIF: 2002:12:08 etc.

Although I have many files with data in the field mapavi refers to as comments, this shows up no where in the image properties with gThumb.
gThumb and mapavi refer to different fields with the name comment(s)

The real problem:
Every time gThumb displays a file with data in the IPTC / Comment field, it creates a .comment folder and a xml file for each image.
If all of my images had data in the IPTC field, I would end up with thousands of .comment folders and over half a million xml files.

Suggestions / Requests:
When the comment field is not set to show comments, gThumb should not make an xml file. That would solve most of the problem.
Next, if gThumb absolutely has to create these xml files in order to display the data, they should either be deleted when done, centrally located like the thumbnails are, or centrally located in an Sqlite file.

With as many images as I have, I have been working on a script to add comments and keywords to the files. I think you can see that as of now, doing that would then add over half a million xml files to my system. Not a good idea........

In the mean time, is there some special gconf setting I can use to completely suppress making the xml files?
Can some one point me to the section of the gThumb source code to rip out or any compiler switch so that I can recompile without this feature?

Sample image that always makes the .comments folder and xml file attached

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thank you for your bug report. This bug has been reported to the developers of the software. You can track it and make comments at:
 https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=604720

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

this has been fixed upstream now, thanks for reporting.

[JC Hulce (soaringsky)]

This bug has been marked as Fix Committed for over a year. If the fix has made it into Ubuntu, please mark this bug as Fix Released. If the fix has been released upstream, but not Ubuntu, create a new bug asking for the new version and tag it with upgrade-software-version. If this bug has not been fixed anywhere, change the status back to Confirmed.

[Paolo Benvenuto (donpaolo)]

The bug still affect gthumb

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

It is probably a configuration option. If someone know *which*, it would be helpful to post here...

[Romano Giannetti (romano-giannetti)]

If anyone still has this problem --- I have resolved it by:
1) setting "store metadata inside files if possible"
2) disabling the "comments and tags" extension
HTH

[gna (nagy-gergely)]

Comment #7 from @romano-gianetti is the right workaround

Thanks

[gna (nagy-gergely)]

Additional note:

The upstream fix mentions a setting: Uncheck 'Synchronize with the embedded metadata'

For me it was unchecked, but the empty ".comments" folder got created, until i deactivated the extension itself

[Robert Ernster (rob38dd)]

Apparently the .comments subfolder is is back again.
@romano-gianetti's workaround works in Ubuntu 20.04 too.
For newbees like me, you will find:
"store metadata inside files if possible": is in: gThumb > ≡ > Preferences > General
"comments and tags" is in: gThumb > ≡ > Preferences > Extensions
Thanks