Nautilus leaks memory right after system start

[Andreas E.]

Directly after logging in, nautilus starts to take more memory with a speed of ~4 MB/s. After 10-20 minutes the system freezes so extremely that it doesn't respond to any input (alt+f1, reisub).
This could be caused by something related to the desktop since nautilus is used to render the desktop.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: nautilus 1:3.6.3-0ubuntu16
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-27.40-generic 3.8.13.4
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-27-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.3
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Aug 13 20:52:16 2013
GsettingsChanges:
 b'org.gnome.nautilus.window-state' b'geometry' b"'640x750+0+24'"
 b'org.gnome.nautilus.window-state' b'sidebar-width' b'152'
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-08-12 (1 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release i386 (20130424)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: nautilus
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Andreas E. (andreas-e)]

I had expected ubuntu-bug adds more detailed/valuable information about the bug. If there is more info needed, I could reproduce it and give what ever info requested.

This was after a fresh install of Ubuntu, but with old user configuration imported. Turning of Nautilus to manage the desktop does indeed workaround the issue, although it shouldn't happen at all.
In any case I see this not only as a problem in this nautilus build, but also in resource/RAM management in the OS: A process that requires more RAM than can be afforded to maintain the system's responsiveness should be halted or killed.

[Andreas E. (andreas-e)]

This is a serious issue because it can happen at unpredictable times, and the memory leak runs with enormous speed. The system locks up so much that I had to hard reboot several times which is not good and can do damage to files.

As far as I found out, the issue happens when nautilus tries to generate a thumbnail of a specific file (or a symlink of such a file) that is laying in the Desktop folder. When the file is in another location, nautilus still fails to create a thumbnail but doesn't leak memory.
Thumbnail generation should be able to fail (with appropriate error/exception handling) and ignore failed files without impacting the system.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Could you try if you still see similar issues in newer versions?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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