DAV (iDisk) writing using Snow Leopard

DB

During early release of 3.0 I discovered a problem writing directly to my iDisk while using Snow Leopard. You fixed it by making it impossible to do this. I was just wondering if this problem is ever going to be resolved so I can go back to my old ways? I have a PowerMac G5 desktop running Leopard and it still works as it did before, so I presume the problem is in the OS and still uncorrected.

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

I have not forgot about this Mac OS X bug. Each time Apple has released a system update I remove my fix for the bug that you found and test to see if Apple has fixed the problem.

I could not remember exactly when I last did a test, so when I saw your post this morning I did a test and the bad news is that the Mac OS X bug is still there. Sad

What is really frustrating about this Mac OS X bug is that the bytes are getting written to the WebDAV volume (iDisk uses the WebDAV networking protocol). I can see the correct bytes when you change and save to an existing file. Where the Mac OS X bug occurs is when you close the file. At that point, Mac OS X does something that tells the WebDAV server that the file should be truncated to zero bytes.

Since we cannot avoid closing your files (in Mac OS X, quitting an application invokes the close() function on all open files), there is still no way to avoid this Mac OS X bug other than to never overwrite an existing WebDAV file.

Patrick

DB · Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 7:26 pm Post subject: It seems to be fixed for TextEdit

Hi Patrick,

Here is a curious thing. When I first discovered this I tried saving files from TextEdit in .txt format and I got the same problem, so I figured that the issue was not confined to Neooffice. The problem did not seem to arise with other programs and formats (.pages, .doc, .docx, .ppt, pptx).

Today, however, I have been experimenting again with TextEdit and I have not been able to reproduce the problem. TextEdit will now save and replace a file on my iDisk without zeroing it out. TextEdit will write and save in .odt format and both this format and .txt seem to work OK.

I don't know if Apple has changed TextEdit or fixed the OS problem for TextEdit and left Neooffice dangling.

I have been using a small file. I think I will try a larger one.

Dick

DB · Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 8:16 pm Post subject: (Somewhat) Larger File

I tried Descartes Meditations, which comes in at 56 Kb in .odt. The file was originally produced with Neooffice. It edits and saves and reedits and saves without incident using TextEdit.

Dick

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

Since you are no longer seeing any problem saving to an iDisk volume with other applications, it is possible that the problem is also fixed for NeoOffice.

The problem I have is that I do not have an iDisk account and, instead, I am using a local WebDAV server setup as my best guess at emulating iDisk. So, it is possible that the problems that I see are due to my WebDAV server setup does not accurate emulate iDisk.

If anyone has a spare iDisk account that has no confidential data in it, I could test NeoOffice without the fix again against your iDisk account. If anyone is willing to do that, I would recommend temporarily changing your iDisk account's password (so that you can change it back after I have finished testing) and send me a Private Message with your iDisk account name and password. Don't post either in this forum topic as this forum is searched by Google and other search engines very frequently.

Patrick

DB · Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 11:16 am Post subject: I can do this.

I think you have access to my email address. Just send me a message and we can continue this off line.

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

DB · Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 11:51 am Post subject:

Would it be possible for you to make available to me a version without the iDisk restriction? Then I could test it out on my iDisk.

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

FYI. A NeoOffice volunteer has given us access to a test iDisk account that we can use so if my test patch causes the zero length file bug to reoccur, I will not need any access to your iDisk account name or password.

Patrick

DB · Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 4:43 pm Post subject:

Patrick,

After applying your patch, saving to the iDisk is working for me without a hitch. I have been editing and saving .odt, .0ds, and .odp files of various sizes. No problem.

Is your experience similar?

Dick

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

DB · Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:05 pm Post subject:

Oh shucks. Yes, I spoke too soon. I was watching the files on the iDisk while holding Neooffice open. I did not check after I closed the program. But going back after reading this I find the test files I was using are indeed zeroed out.

But why is it only Neooffice that exhibits this behavior? I tried again to duplicate the problem with TextEdit and a .odt file and closing TextEdit has no effect on the file. And I have been using other programs and writing directly to the iDisk, including Acrobat, Photoshop Elements, MS Office 2008 Word and PowerPoint.

Dick

DB · Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:27 pm Post subject:

I have used Pages too without a problem.

Is this a problem with OpenOffice.org? I don't have a copy installed here, or I would try it. How about earlier versions of Neooffice?

Dick

DB · Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:09 pm Post subject:

I answered my own question concerning OpenOffice.org. I loaded it just to see. It has the same problem. I guess this is no surprise.

Dick