[Xfce-bugs] [Bug 12264] Crash when renaming single file in folder

[bugzilla-daemon at xfce.org]

https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12264

--- Comment #95 from xfce at dirdi.name ---
slumbergod is right: The bug has not been tracked down, yet. By now it seems
pretty clear that the bug is caused by different threads that operate on the
same data(structures). Unfortunately bugs, which are related to multithreading
are hard to track down, since they are non-deterministic and different parts of
the code, which are executed concurrently, may need to be adapted.

However, it seems that nobody really understands the code, but just fiddles
around with it, in hope the bug will magically disappear. If debugging is done
this way, it is much more likely that the opposite effect will occur: New bugs
are introduced.

Roy for example proposed in comment #71 to add an additional check to the code:
> if (!THUNAR_IS_FILE (file))
>    {
>      return NULL;
>    }

This additional check may reduce the number of crashes, but it does not cure
the cause (As Roy discovered in comment #72): If the OS triggers a thread
switch between the check and the execution of the following operations, the
result of the check may no longer hold.

I guess, that some type of synchronization will be needed to patch the bug.
Therefore is it necessary to identify the critical sections and implement
mutual exclusion.

PS: Sorry, if this post sounds a bit harsh. I do not want to offend anyone -
especially not Roy - but just want to point further efforts into the right
direction.

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