savannah: external editor does not write changes on remote file systems

[bitsfritz]

Original: ​http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?15809

Submitted by:	Friedrich Strohmaier <bitsfritz>	Submitted on:	Sun 19 Feb 2006 09:05:18 PM UTC
Category:	Editor	Severity:	3 - Normal
Status:	Confirmed	Privacy:	Public
Assigned to:	Pavel Tsekov <ptsekov>	Open/Closed:	Open
Release:	4.6.1	Operating System:	GNU/Linux

Original submission:

Editing text files on remote file systems using the system editor 
(vim), not the built in one, does not work as expected.

The buffer with a temporary file is opened and changed, but not 
written to target leaving with ":wq" . This is tested on my ubuntu 
box for ftp and fish.

to get the effect do the following steps:

if not already done prepare mc not to use built in editor.
On an sshd running system establish a conection with:

1. cd #sh:localhost:
2. browse to an known file and open editor by pressing <F4>
3. do some edit
4. save an leave (use ":wq" on vim)

Editor is quitting without error.

now the file should be changed

refresh window by <ctrl+r>

use <F3> to prove ==> file is not changed an no error was given.

This behavior was also confirmed by other users on german ubuntu 
list. For example here:
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.ubuntu.user.german/3618

"can reproduce on breezy"

And a different Editor (nvi) set on /etc/alternatives/vi set on my box

Info:
GNU Midnight Commander 4.6.1
Virtual File System: tarfs, extfs, cpiofs, ftpfs, fish, smbfs
With builtin Editor
Using system-installed S-Lang library with terminfo database
With subshell support as default
With support for background operations
With mouse support on xterm and Linux console
With internationalization support
With multiple codepages support

Package:
Version: 1:4.6.1-1ubuntu2~breezy1

VIM - Vi IMproved 6.3 (2004 June 7, compiled Aug 22 2005 17:27:07) Version: 1:6.3-078+1ubuntu3

Friedrich

Comment 1 by Friedrich Strohmaier <bitsfritz> at Sun 19 Feb 2006 11:16:04 PM UTC:

see also:

Bug #31757 in mc (Ubuntu): "mc external editor does not write 
changes on remote file systems"

https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/mc/+bug/31757

Friedrich

[zaytsev]

Also tracked in Ubuntu: ​https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mc/+bug/31757 .

[Dogen]

Bug reproduced on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.
External editor: "gedit"
Connection: SSH
Editor only edits and saves tmp file, that MC downloads from remote server. No changes are made to actual remote file.

[andrew_b]

No need set keywords that are already in ticket (in title or in body).

[Dogen]

16/09/10 - can be rperoduced in MC version:

GNU Midnight Commander 4.7.0.9
Virtual File System: tarfs, extfs, cpiofs, ftpfs, fish, undelfs
With builtin Editor
Using system-installed S-Lang library with terminfo database
With subshell support as default
With support for background operations
With mouse support on xterm and Linux console
With support for X11 events
With internationalization support
With multiple codepages support
Data types: char 8 int 32 long 32 void * 32 off_t 64 ecs_char 8

[zaytsev]

Don't bump. This will not draw more attention to your request.

[phil]

Referring to ​Launchpad discussion:

Yury V. Zaytsev (zaytsev) wrote on 2011-02-13:

It seems that to fix it properly one needs to register fsnotifier callbacks on the files in the temporary folder and update them on remote system if there were changes. This all is highly nontrivial and there are much more urgent and pressing issues, so I would say not in the next half year unless someone provides a patch.

When you start the editor without using &, that is, blocking the parent process, no filesystem change notification is needed. Just check the file's mtime before and after starting the editor.