Trash applets : freezes whole desktop while emptying?

Hi,

well title says it all.

If using trash applet for emptying, I can’t do anything else meanwhile, the whole desktop is unresponsive. It does not look frozen per say, just I can not click or launch anything while trash is emptying.

I noticed this because my trash contained many gtk* themes and icons, so dozens thousands little files.

So I tried again by removing other themes and icons but this time only using Nautilus to deal with the trash, and this way emptying trash does not « freeze » any other actions on desktop.

Hence my guessing trash applet may be doing something weird.

UBudgie 18.04 here, maybe does not apply to newer versions.

Well I wouldn’t say weird. It’s just deleting stuff but taking its merry time since you have thousands of files. It will complete eventually.

Yeah. The deletion should be done in a thread not as part of the main panel process

Has there been any progress on that side in 20.10 or planned for 21.04 ?

No progress. It wasn’t on the list considered for 21.04. It’s still an outstanding issue that anyone with python knowledge are able to contribute to.

We will evaluate 21.10 priorities in April.

Damn I thought I had talked about it then but no… I should set a reminder for next priorities in April :smile:

Seems like somebody did Create a thread to delete files in to avoid locking the system · EbonJaeger/budgie-trash-applet@cb5f6b2 · GitHub ?

Asking @samlane might be awkward ?

I wouldn’t say awkward. I just don’t have much experience with the trash applet to say “yeah, no problem!” It’s one of the applets I never really have used much, so I’d have to really look at it and see how it works and what would be involved. Thread mistakes can be a fun and exciting way to crash the Budgie Panel. :wink:

I agree fully! Anything to-do with mass file based manipulation should be done out-of-process i.e. separate executable. So if the separate process dies - it doesn’t take the panel with it.

I often avoid any thread issue by calling an external process. Had quite some thread issues with weather applet on threading before it worked rock solid finally.

Note here trash-applet does not really crash panels, it freezes the whole desktop UI while deleting files ( if there are many files or just few heavy files ).

We might also think about revamping trash-applet :
⋅ its icon type could be same as other launchers ( instead of limited to a panel/indicator size )
⋅ as long as icon followed state of trash ( empty / busy )
⋅ if easier, left click could be just a call to any default-file-explorer on Trash
⋅ right click = empty trash

I know I could almost do that with a basic .desktop file but then I don’t know how to
⋅ set « dynamic » icon for showing state of trash
⋅ place that icon at a specific location inside panel ( ie. not only inside icon-tasks-list applet )

On 20.04 I’m still facing a little issue with Trash applet : I can’t delete basic folders ( be they empty or not ) only files are deleted ( even archives like zip or tar ).

Seems like a new budgie trash applet appeared ? v. 1.0.2+202107041619~ubuntu20.04.1

I can now delete folders in my configuration ( most of my usual personal folders are on another partition/disc, outside the root system ).

But this new applet has a static icon looking like a full bin - ie. does not show if trash is busy or empty.

See also Trash applet [!] when emptying, follow links? - #33 by Coeur-Noir

Yep. Very eagle eyed!

Work in progress. Thx for the feedback. Keep it coming.