gvfs-fuse doesn't work (completely) with the sftp interface #1049

New Issue

tahoe-lafs · 2010-05-19T02:57:10Z

bj0 commented

2010-05-19 02:57:10 +00:00

When using the SFTP frontend via gvfs FUSE, there is a bug that causes some file operations to fail. Since this also happens with other SFTP implementations, and with very simple commands (see below), the bug is likely to be in gvfs FUSE -- although that doesn't necessarily mean that we can't work around it.

Some applications appear to work, like vi and gedit, but some do not, like OpenOffice.

You can see that this bug is present by creating a simple text file: file1, then:

> cat file1 > file2
> cat file2 >> file1
cat: write error: Operation not supported

file1 is zero-length after the second cat.

This bug is present when I use gvfs to connect to an openssh-server also.

When using the SFTP frontend via gvfs FUSE, there is a bug that causes some file operations to fail. Since this also happens with other SFTP implementations, and with very simple commands (see below), the bug is likely to be in gvfs FUSE -- although that doesn't necessarily mean that we can't work around it. Some applications appear to work, like vi and gedit, but some do not, like OpenOffice. You can see that this bug is present by creating a simple text file: file1, then: ``` > cat file1 > file2 > cat file2 >> file1 cat: write error: Operation not supported ``` `file1` is zero-length after the second `cat`. This bug is present when I use gvfs to connect to an openssh-server also.

tahoe-lafs added the

labels 2010-05-19 02:57:10 +00:00

tahoe-lafs added this to the undecided milestone 2010-05-19 02:57:10 +00:00

davidsarah commented

2010-05-19 03:11:54 +00:00

The bug probably is not in our SFTP frontend, but any workaround would have to be implemented there (if possible).

tahoe-lafs added

code-frontend

and removed

unknown

labels 2010-05-19 03:11:54 +00:00

davidsarah commented

2010-05-19 03:15:40 +00:00

We need to document this in source:docs/frontends/FTP-and-SFTP.txt . Accepting for 1.7 as a documentation bug.

tahoe-lafs modified the milestone from undecided to 1.7.0

2010-05-19 03:15:40 +00:00

zooko commented

2010-05-19 03:18:12 +00:00

This ticket should be cross-linked to a ticket on the Gnome Bugzilla. I also like to use http://launchpad.net to track issues that effect more than one project. You can create a ticket in launchpad which tracks both this ticket (Tahoe-LAFS #1049) and that ticket (Gnome #whatever-it-comes-out-to-be) and any other projects that are affected by this issue.

This ticket should be cross-linked to a ticket on [the Gnome Bugzilla](https://bugzilla.gnome.org/). I also like to use <http://launchpad.net> to track issues that effect more than one project. You can create a ticket in launchpad which tracks both this ticket (Tahoe-LAFS #1049) and that ticket (Gnome #whatever-it-comes-out-to-be) and any other projects that are affected by this issue.

davidsarah commented

2010-06-08 03:41:22 +00:00

(wiki/SftpFrontend#Gnomevirtualfilesystemgvfs) documents that gvfs-FUSE is not supported, and why:

gvfs-FUSE, on the other hand, is not recommended for use with Tahoe. This is because it has to map POSIX filesystem requests onto GIO requests, and this mapping loses information -- some combinations of 'open' flags cannot be expressed in the GIO API, for example. Therefore it is impossible for gvfs-FUSE to provide a fully correct FUSE filesystem (or even one that is "good enough" for many applications).

Basically I think that gvfs-FUSE is misguided and cannot work. (sshfs doesn't have the problem described here, because it is mapping from the FUSE interface directly to SFTP, without GIO or any other intermediate layer.)

(wiki/SftpFrontend#Gnomevirtualfilesystemgvfs) documents that gvfs-FUSE is not supported, and why: > gvfs-FUSE, on the other hand, is not recommended for use with Tahoe. This is because it has to map POSIX filesystem requests onto GIO requests, and this mapping loses information -- some combinations of 'open' flags cannot be expressed in the GIO API, for example. Therefore it is impossible for gvfs-FUSE to provide a fully correct FUSE filesystem (or even one that is "good enough" for many applications). Basically I think that gvfs-FUSE is misguided and cannot work. (sshfs doesn't have the problem described here, because it is mapping from the FUSE interface directly to SFTP, without GIO or any other intermediate layer.)

tahoe-lafs added the

wontfix

label 2010-06-08 03:41:22 +00:00

tahoe-lafs closed this issue

2010-06-08 03:41:22 +00:00

zooko commented

2010-06-14 03:19:04 +00:00

If you can explain more precisely what flags gvfs-fuse can't translate, which cause this to not-work, then I'll open a ticket on the Gnome and/or OpenOffice trackers for it.

zooko removed the

wontfix

label 2010-06-14 03:19:13 +00:00

zooko reopened this issue

2010-06-14 03:19:13 +00:00

zooko modified the milestone from 1.7.0 to soon

2010-06-18 23:57:44 +00:00

warner added

code-frontend-ftp-sftp

and removed

code-frontend

labels 2014-12-02 19:42:39 +00:00