File Copy/Move in Dolphin - Progress indication

[Fester Bestertester]

Notification, Progress indicates % from source *into* buffer. Should be progress *OUT OF* buffer to destination.
Rationale:
With buffer likely to contain full file, progress indication of 100% immediately, full transfer not complete until buffer empties.

This seems to have been a constant - maybe a KDE or Linux systemic mode. Hopefully someone can discern who best to address it?? ...

[SecretCode]

The best place to send this is probably the KDE forums, specifically Dolphin • KDE Community Forums

[Fester Bestertester]

Thanks SecretCode - Used the Bug Report from within Dolphin.

[sithlord48]

its not just linux, windows does the same exact thing.. its because of cacheing.. if you want to be sure its done that is why you "safely remove" on windows and part of what the process of unmounting the device does on linux.
to flush the buffers run the command "sync"

[Fester Bestertester]

Flush the buffers? What'll that do to the data?
Another command to run (in Terminal?) each time you want to copy or move a file? I don't think so! Dolphin is 'broken by design'.
Fix the bloody thing - *before* yet another LTS release is poisoned!

[oshunluvr]

The progress report is Dolphin's progress, not the file system's. In other words, Dolphin is reporting on it's process. Dolphin's portion of the action is in the foreground and that's what it's reporting on. The file system has it's own overhead and processes and they vary by filesystem and device. How do you propose Dolphin manage the all the different file systems and all their background processes?

IMO, the "broken by design" and the demand to "fix the bloody thing" are a gross over-characterization of your perceived issue, which to my knowledge no one else has reported as an issue. It seems more likely to me that maybe you aren't understanding the way processes and priorities work, particularly file R/W process.

AFAIK, flushing the buffers (or cache) is forcing the file system to complete all transactions regardless of system priorities. In normal operation, some file operations are background processes and complete as the system allows and settings (and file system design) determine. A flush prioritizes file system functions at a higher than normal level so that file system processes are completed at the quickest pace possible when needed - like when a shutdown or reboot are eminent or you're ready to remove a thumb drive.

It seems you're proposing that all other system processes come to a halt while a file operation is proceeding so you can watch a progress bar - which I doubt you'd really want in actual usage. Or you want Dolphin to report on what the file system is doing in the background - which is adding yet another foreground process to something that's been designed to NOT run in the foreground - a wholly inefficient way to run an operating system IMO.

I agree running yet another command in a terminal just to copy a file is onerous but why so up-in-arms about copying a file? BTW, the same processes are taking place when you copy a file in the terminal, you just don't get a nifty progress dialog and you have to wait for completion before you can move on to your next task - something Dolphin handles for you quite nicely. If Dolphin allows you to copy a file using a mouse and very little other interaction by you, why is that a bad thing?

The whole point of buffers and caches and operational priorities is to allow the user to continue using the system while a multitude of things (house-keeping chores) continue in the background. I don't see anything "broken" with Dolphin or the system in this regard.

I suggest you let the system (the entire system) do it's job and worry a little less about the whys and hows - just a suggestion.

[Snowhog]

Nicely explained.

[LinkBot]

About Dolphin file (copy/move) operations

https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?...124677#p328641

...All file operations in Dolphin and other KDE applications are done by the KIO framework: https://quickgit.kde.org/?p=kio.git

Anyone who is interested in working on optimizations should analyze what KIO does inefficiently, and try to find ways to improve it. The Frameworks development mailing list is probably the best place to discuss ideas how the KIO code can be improved:https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinf...ameworks-devel

[Fester Bestertester]

So many fingers in the pie! Thanks for the clarification, Snowhog. The Notification I am referring to is the one glued to the Panel - is that the one KIO uses to report? I come back to: use the progress OUT of the buffers, wherever they're from. I'm *not* advocating halting everything while file ops are in progress - that's what multi-tasking does: ) , just getting the right info from the right place for this user-interface 'homologation'.

[Snowhog]

I think it's important to understand that what one 'expects to happen' isn't necessarily 'how it actually happens', and that 'desire' doesn't drive 'function'.

The behavior of copying/moving files from A to B -- how it actually works -- hasn't changed in Unix/Linux since the beginning. By system design, the processor is permitted to schedule processes, and that is why caching/buffering exists and is used. It is also why, when copying/moving files from one device to another (note: not from already mounted 'system partitions'), that it is necessary (prudent) to execute the unmount of the destination device before actually removing it. The unmounting the destination device causes the operating system to flush the cache/buffers to ensure that any unfinished operation gets finished. When you are informed that the device is safe to remove (unplug), all actions will have been completed. This is how it has always been.

[Fester Bestertester]

Inter-device ops expect such. What I've noted is ops within the mounted filesystems. I've noted no such issue with an auto-mounted USB stick, but it's blatantly evident between ~ and links to *mounted* drives (and this includes the 'host' drive carrying Kubi-wan's install currently being used to write this ... ).
Seems the KIO team are looking at this now. We may get a sane report from that to Dolphin (or other file manager/s) from their efforts.