Excessive disk thrashing on triggering gtk-update-icon-cache

[Sebastian Audet]

Platform: Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS
Version Information:
  Installed: 0.12-1ubuntu2
  Candidate: 0.12-1ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 0.12-1ubuntu2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages
Expected Behavior: No system freeze on updating the icon cache
Actual Behavior: Inconvenient system hangs whenever an application updates the icon cache through e.g. updates.

Extended Description:

Any time an application is updated, or added, which uses icons stored in /usr/share/icons/hicolor, dpkg updated the icon cache through the triggering process.

The command being run is gtk-update-icon-cache --force, which according to the manual rebuilds the entire icon cache. Whenever this command is run, a slowdown of the entire system occurs, and does not relent until the cache is rebuilt. Instead, run it with --validate.

A patch (in diff format) is attached which is intended to replace the package maintainer's script in debian/postinstall.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: hicolor-icon-theme 0.12-1ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.39-generic 3.2.16
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.4
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Sep 7 19:59:06 2013
Dependencies:

EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
MarkForUpload: True
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: hicolor-icon-theme
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-05-14 (481 days ago)

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

The attachment "patch.diff" seems to be a patch. If it isn't, please remove the "patch" flag from the attachment, remove the "patch" tag, and if you are a member of the ~ubuntu-reviewers, unsubscribe the team.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by ~brian-murray, for any issues please contact him.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Roland (Rolandixor) Taylor (rolandixor)]

This still occurs on Ubuntu 13.10.

It's really, really, really annoying.