Serious bug in beta 3: Synchronize directories deletes files

[Lefteous]

Please Update to Beta 4 (or later) immediately if you use beta 1-3!

Please don't try to reproduce this bug. You may lose important data!

Make sure [Configuration] CompareTool=%PATH% doesn't point to an invalid location before comparing files in the directory synchronization.


I encountered a very strange behavior in synchronize directories.

I synched to directories. Two files appeared as different (let's call them file1 and file2). They actually were different. I pressed Ctrl+F3 to compare the file1 files. A message appeared that a file couldn't be find. I switch to another TC window and saw that file1 disappeared - it has been deleted. I opened file2 on the right panel using Lister in the other TC window - no problem. Then I pressed compare again and now only a single file was different (file2). I looked into the directories using the other TC window and file 1 was gone on both sides. I compared file2 in the sync window and got the same error message. A switch to another TC window informed me that file 2 was deleted on both sides.

sync options:
[ ] async
[x] sub dirs
[x] content
[x] ignore dates

Both files on the same local disk (normal directories), full read and write access. I tested this on Windows Vista RC2.

Don't try to reproduce this bug!

Steps to reproduce:
1. Set [Configuration]CompareTool=C:\UnknownMergeTool.exe
2. Restart TC
3. Left side contains two text files named file1 and file2 in dir1.
4. Right side contains two text files having the same names in dir2. file2 in dir1 differs from file 2 in dir2.
5. store position
6. call sync dirs
7. Compare using the above listed options
8. Choose "Compare files" in the file 2 context menu.
9. Start another TC window. The files are gone!

I was able to restore all deleted files using Restoration. At least I hope

Some thoughts: It seems TC thinks the files are temporary and then deletes the files - that's just a wild guess. I hope this is fixed very soon.

[Hacker]

[mod]Made sticky.

Hacker (Moderator)[/mod]

[Lefteous]

Some more information on this. The reason for the first error message was not that one of the files wasn't found it was the external compare tool which wasn't found (system change not all programs migrated yet). The error message is not very clear on this: "File not found".
This means the bug is only reproducable when

Code: Select all

CompareTool=%PATH%

is set to an non existing path. In this case TC seems to fall back to the internal compare function. Well I still don't understand why the files are deleted in this case. Maybe it's related to the Ctrl+Shift+F3 addition in beta 3.

[Flint]

Confirm under WinXP SP2, TC7b3!

[Lefteous]

2Flint
Thanks for confirming - I hope you didn't lose important data.

I just edited my first post. The bug can also be reproduced with older TC 7 beta versions. 6.56 should be ok as the CompareTool setting has been introduced in TC 7 - no guarantee though.

[wanderer]

Cannot confirm it! I hope i'm not doing anything wrong but i followed Lefteous's instructions and everything worked normally.

Setup: TC7pb3 under Win2KPro SP4-2.

Is there a chance it is related to a specific TC setting or an external program (Antivirus or something)? Perhaps the files are 2-3 folder-levels deep? I didn't get this: have you set an external compare tool that cannot be found?

Anyway, i'll test in WinXP tomorrow and let you know.

[wanderer]

Ok, forget my previous post. Confirmed by me too (in b3 at least). Indeed, as Lefteous said, when the "CompareTool" ini setting is wrong, everything explodes. In my case, i put the files in subfolders and then i performed a "sync dirs". TC not only deleted the files but it also deleted the subfolders! This is indeed a serious bug.

Here's my test setup:

Code: Select all

Left panel                       Right panel

C:\Test1\Folder1\File1.txt       C:\Test2\Folder1\File1.txt

In sync dirs, i was in C:\Test1 and C:\Test2 and compared their subfolders. After doing what Lefteous suggested, TC deleted Folder1 and Folder2 and the respective files of course.

[Lefteous]

2wanderer
Thanks for checking. I guess two confirmations are sufficient.

Again: Please don't try to reproduce this bug. You may lose important data!

[Flint]

I hope you didn't lose important data.

Sure. I created new folders and files specifically for the testing.

Some addition, maybe helpful for somebody: the files are removed just after pressing OK in the "File not found" message box (checked with FileMon).

[ghisler(Author)]

Thanks for the detailed analysis. I will fix it in the next beta!

[Lefteous]

2ghisler(Author)
Thank you for fixing in advance. Can you enlighten us why TC deletes the files?

[ghisler(Author)]

I have not found out yet, it will require some extensive debugging. The file change detection timer is used to detect whether a file is changed, e.g. when the user saves an edited file, so the sync tool can be informed about the changes. This timer seems to assume that the files are temporary for some yet unknown reason.

TC6.56 should be fine because it doesn't support editing in the compare tool.

[karlchen]

Hi, Christian.

Any news on this bug, please?

Karl

[ghisler(Author)]

Yes, it will be fixed in TC7 beta 4. TC6.x is not affected.

[karlchen]

This is good news. Thank you, Christian.

Karl