gvfs-backends should be split in multiple sub-packages

[Gioele Barabucci]

Binary package hint: gvfs

The gvfs-backends should be transformed in a meta-package that only recommends other more specific sub-packages.

Currently the gvfs-backends package contains «the afc, archive, burn, cdda, dav, dnssd, ftp, gphoto2, http, network, obexftp, sftp, smb and smb-browse backends» and depends on 22 different libraries.

While all these backends may come handy at times, low-resource computer would benefit if some of these where not installed.

For example cd-less computers (not only netbooks) do not need the "burn" or "cdda" backends. These two backends install and run a demon that requires memory and installs unneeded libraries.

A similar argument applies to the AFS backend (not that much useful these days to a wide audience, runs a daemon), gphoto2 (office workstation and thin clients do not need it, runs a daemon), obexftp (makes any Gnome installation dependent on Bluetooth libraries) and any other protocol.

While installing all these backends by default is certainly a good thing, not having a way to remove them when not needed is a problem. Making gvfs-backends a meta-package and splitting its current content in multiple packages (gvfs-backends-afs, gvfs-backends-sftp, gvfs-backends-smb) would retain the good behaviour while still allowing users with little resources (RAM, disk, CPU) to remove the unneeded components.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the request should be sent to debian though it has been discussed before and decided it was not worth the extra complexity

[Gioele Barabucci (gioele)]

Just a quick note on the subject: this is a quick summary of the memory used by some of the daemons that are currently spawned every time a user logs in.

Obviously you can't just sum up the VmRSS or VmSize fields, but, anyway, most of these kilobytes are just plain wasted in many configurations. When thinking about this issue, also the number of wake-ups forced by these daemons and the time that it takes to launch them when the user logs it should be taken into account.

/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
VmPeak: 7128 kB
VmSize: 7124 kB
VmLck: 0 kB
VmHWM: 2364 kB
VmRSS: 2300 kB
VmData: 592 kB
VmStk: 84 kB
VmExe: 48 kB
VmLib: 4676 kB
VmPTE: 36 kB

/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
VmPeak: 16948 kB
VmSize: 16948 kB
VmLck: 0 kB
VmHWM: 2324 kB
VmRSS: 2272 kB
VmData: 8408 kB
VmStk: 84 kB
VmExe: 40 kB
VmLib: 6692 kB
VmPTE: 40 kB

/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-burn --spawner :1.6 /org/gtk/gvfs/exec_spaw/1
VmPeak: 6436 kB
VmSize: 6376 kB
VmLck: 0 kB
VmHWM: 2352 kB
VmRSS: 1952 kB
VmData: 204 kB
VmStk: 84 kB
VmExe: 116 kB
VmLib: 4316 kB
VmPTE: 36 kB

/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-network --spawner :1.6 /org/gtk/gvfs/exec_spaw/2
VmPeak: 15556 kB
VmSize: 15556 kB
VmLck: 0 kB
VmHWM: 3360 kB
VmRSS: 3360 kB
VmData: 8532 kB
VmStk: 84 kB
VmExe: 116 kB
VmLib: 5092 kB
VmPTE: 28 kB

/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-smb-browse --spawner :1.6 /org/gtk/gvfs/exec_spaw/3
Groups: 4 20 24 46 105 119 122 1000
VmPeak: 24252 kB
VmSize: 24252 kB
VmLck: 0 kB
VmHWM: 4976 kB
VmRSS: 4972 kB
VmData: 9360 kB
VmStk: 84 kB
VmExe: 124 kB
VmLib: 12372 kB
VmPTE: 36 kB

/usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-dnssd --spawner :1.6 /org/gtk/gvfs/exec_spaw/4
VmPeak: 6604 kB
VmSize: 6544 kB
VmLck: 0 kB
VmHWM: 2592 kB
VmRSS: 2592 kB
VmData: 208 kB
VmStk: 84 kB
VmExe: 116 kB
VmLib: 4444 kB
VmPTE: 36 kB

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

setting this to triaged, it was sent upstream already.

[Franck (alci)]

This is also somewhat related to this bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usbmuxd/+bug/656009 saying gvfs-afs-volume-monitor wakes up every second just to check if an Apple device was connected. This has a negative impact on power consumption (esp. for a laptop), and I happen to not have any iPod / iXXXX device.

[wontfix (wontfix)]

This bug sadly still exists in 2024. libgphoto2-6 now allows for network communication for cameras and related devices. libmobiledevice6 ensures that you are forced to have iphone support. libgdata is generally Google specific. Insecure FTP and WebDAV? Still default required, installed, and not removable in 2024.

All of the library packages are required dependencies. It looks like it could be broken out even further according to the installed files list but at least making them recommended would be a wonderful first step.

https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/gvfs/backends

[Birgit Edel (biredel)]

Another unpleasant side effect of the dependencies is that libmtp-common with `/usr/lib/udev/rules.d/69-libmtp.rules` is pulled in, making snap-device-helper bugs more difficult to decipher from logs.