Comment 2 for bug 132741

Jamie McCracken wrote:
> A few corrections:
>
> At startup we scan folders only not files - we need folders in order to
> place inotify watches on them.
>
> The parent folders mtime alwyas changes whenever a file underneath it
> changes so we dont need to scan files unless folder has changed, When we
> have a proper kernel notifcation system we can dispense with the above

I'm suggesting when you have a proper kernel notification system, then
Tracker will be usable :-)

> Having a massive home folder is not typical of ordinary users and
> suggests a power user or dev instead who will know how to configure
> tracker to index only a subset

I don't buy that argument. Even 'ordinary users' often have disks
which are nearly full, even if they are smaller. So the problem of an
index using up all the disk space after an upgrade will still occur.

And if it's a much smaller home dir, say 20GB, it would still be an
unusable desktop due to the noted performance interactions for the
first day or two of indexing wouldn't it?

Imho, breaking a 'power user' desktop _just_ because someone has
accumulated a lot of files over the years, even though they have a
_bog standard_ Ubuntu install, with no customisations, no dev, no
unusual packages, and possible no knowledge of such things, seems a
bit harsh to me. I know Gutsy isn't bog standard but obviously it
will be when it's released, and it needs to work smoothly by then.

It's common to buy a laptop with 100GB disk now. Are you saying it's
unusual for someone to half-fill such a disk? If so, surely that will
change?

However, if Tracker works perfectly well on smaller home dirs, perhaps
it would be better if the default install checked the size, and
enabled it only if there's a certain percentage of disk space free,
warning with a dialog if not.

-- Jamie