Trying to use either Compress or Extract from right click menu multiple times in succession fails

[TheNetRanger]

What Happened?

If I use the right click menu to Extract or Compress a file and then immediately go to do this again on another file it will fail. If I then try again it will work. Every other time fails. If I do something else ie Rename in between the Compress or Extract tasks then these will work fine

This is the case on eOS7, but had same issues on 6 and 6.1

Steps to Reproduce

In Files, right click on a file/folder Choose Compress Now right click on another file/folder Choose Compress

Expected Behavior

Expect Compress/Extract to work each time

OS Version

7.x (Early Access)

Software Version

Latest release (I have run all updates)

Log Output

No response

Hardware Info

No response

[jeremypw]

@TheNetRanger Hi, thanks for the report. I just tried this on eOS7 but could not reproduce it. The relevant packages to have installed (natively) are

file-roller/jammy,now 3.42.0-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
  archive manager for GNOME

io.elementary.contractor.file-roller/jammy,jammy,now 0.1+r2~daily~ubuntu21.10.1 all [installed]
  Contractor extension for File Roller

When you say it "fails" every second time, do you mean nothing happens or does the file-roller window appear and subsequently give an error?

You could try running G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all io.elementary.files in a terminal to see if any messages are produced when the operation fails.

The contractor does not work with the Flatpak version of FileRoller (Archive Manager)

[TheNetRanger]

[TheNetRanger]

As you can see in GIF above, on first file the Compress dialogue box comes up and works (Action 1), I then try Compress on second file (Action 2), no dialogue box and nothing happens, then try again (Action 3), works fine.

If I have more files the pattern would be Action 1 works, Action 2 doesn't, Action 3 works, Action 4 doesn't etc etc

If I was to do something in between, ie Compress Test 1, rename zip file, and then try Compress on Test 2, the fact I have done something in between (ie the Rename) would mean it would work fine

[TheNetRanger]

@jeremypw It's a clean eOS7 install, file-roller showing up as 3.42.0-1

When I try the DEBUG command it just chucks out about 20 lines of info and then drops me back to prompt, so no time to do anything, not like a real time log

[jeremypw]

@TheNetRanger When running the app from the terminal you must first close any open Files windows as the system prevents two instances of the app running simultaneously.

[jeremypw]

@TheNetRanger I copied the actions in your video (Including filenames and archive type) but did not get the issue. I have a development install of eOS7 rather than a clean install though. I should get round to setting up a clean install now that its released I guess.

[TheNetRanger]

(io.elementary.files:2622): DEBUG: 14:49:49.376: Directory.vala:1141: found cached dir file:///home/gideon/Downloads/Test (io.elementary.files:2622): DEBUG: 14:49:49.376: Directory.vala:1154: Dir file:///home/gideon/Downloads/Test/.fr-MG9LZ1 not in cache (io.elementary.files:2622): DEBUG: 14:49:49.376: File.vala:491: Containing mount for file /home/gideon/Downloads/Test/.fr-MG9LZ1 not found (io.elementary.files:2622): DEBUG: 14:49:49.376: File.vala:491: Containing mount for file /home/gideon/Downloads/Test/.fr-MG9LZ1 not found (io.elementary.files:2622): DEBUG: 14:49:49.438: Directory.vala:1141: found cached dir file:///home/gideon/Downloads/Test (io.elementary.files:2622): DEBUG: 14:49:49.438: Directory.vala:1141: found cached dir file:///home/gideon/Downloads/Test (io.elementary.files:2622): DEBUG: 14:49:49.438: Directory.vala:1154: Dir file:///home/gideon/Downloads/Test/Test%202.zip not in cache (io.elementary.files:2622): DEBUG: 14:49:49.438: File.vala:491: Containing mount for file /home/gideon/Downloads/Test/Test 2.zip not found (io.elementary.files:2622): DEBUG: 14:49:49.439: File.vala:491: Containing mount for file /home/gideon/Downloads/Test/Test 2.zip not found (io.elementary.files:2622): DEBUG: 14:49:49.460: Directory.vala:1141: found cached dir file:///home/gideon/Downloads/Test ** (io.elementary.files:2622): DEBUG: 14:49:49.460: Directory.vala:1141: found cached dir file:///home/gideon/Downloads/Test

[TheNetRanger]

This is output when I run prior to having Files open, no lines appear in debug for the not working action

I have this same issue on multiple machines

[jeremypw]

Thanks for trying. I tried installing the V6.2.1 stable version of Files instead of the latest source but still could not reproduce the issue. You could try uninstalling and reinstalling the two file-roller packages shown above manually using the terminal (sudo apt purge <package-name> followed by sudo apt install <package-name>) and check that the Flatpak version is not also installed.

[TheNetRanger]

gideon@Galactica:~$ sudo apt install io.elementary.contractor.file-roller Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done Reading state information... Done Package io.elementary.contractor.file-roller is not available, but is referred to by another package. This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source However the following packages replace it: org.gnome.fileroller

E: Package 'io.elementary.contractor.file-roller' has no installation candidate

[TheNetRanger]

I'm now in a worse state than before. Compress/Extract Here menu items have gone completely

[TheNetRanger]

Fixed missing menu item using:

sudo apt install --reinstall org.gnome.fileroller

But still has the same initial issue

[jeremypw]

That's weird. You should have io.elementary.contractor.file-roller available. If you run sudo apt search file-roller you should see it. For me its coming from http://ppa.launchpad.net/elementary-os/daily/ubuntu/ jammy main repository. You presumably have the stable equivalent.

[jeremypw]

I'll try to get a virgin installation of OS7 set up in the not too distant future to see whether I can reproduce this.

[TheNetRanger]

file-roller/jammy 3.42.0-1 amd64 archive manager for GNOME

[jeremypw]

@TheNetRanger Just set up a fresh install of OS7 (from elementaryos-7.0-stable.20230129rc.iso). Immediately after the first log in I tried to reproduce this issue. The only issue I noticed was that on the first use the file-roller dialogue took several seconds to appear so at first it seemed that Files had not responded. However, after that there were no problems - the dialogue appeared promptly every time.

However, you are right that the package io.elementary.files.contract.file-roller does not appear in apt search file-roller in the stable version of OS7. Nevertheless the relevant contracts are installed under usr/share/contractor. Sorry for the confusion.

[jeremypw]

I am using a UK English locale and keyboard - although hard to see why that would make a difference.

[TheNetRanger]

@jeremypw I'm confused. I just created the OS7 USB and did a full clean install. But getting same issue on multiple devices.

I'm also set to UK locale and keyboard

[jeremypw]

Very strange! I only have one device to try it on unfortunately. Were you using all the default settings on the fresh install? Maybe have to wait to see if anyone else can confirm this. There is no obvious reason from the code why Files should ignore alternate menu selections. The plugin only ignores it when there are no selected files or when there is no contract matching a common mime-type of the selection. It is possible, I suppose, that either the contract or the file-roller is the culprit but difficult to identify which when I cannot reproduce :disappointed:

[TheNetRanger]

@jeremypw all standard install, didn't even mess around with partitions this time, it was just Erase and Install then choose drive and then following installer to choose language etc

Hopefully someone else gets the same issue to provide more info. Thanks for your help so far though

[jeremypw]

@TheNetRanger Sorry I could not get to the bottom of it.