Comment 0 for bug 1103193

I'm not sure where to report this bug, with Ubuntu One or with the hamster package. It concerns both.

I tried to synchronize the database of the popular hamster time tracker between computer using Ubuntu One. This technique is widely recommended on the internet, and I was surprised it does *not* work.

I added ~/.local/share/hamster-applet/ to the list of synced folders. This folder contains only one file, hamster.db, the database for the hamster time tracker.

What happens:
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hamster.db is synchronized when logging into Ubuntu. However, it is not synchronized while using the time tracker (e.g., adding new activities to the list of tracked activities). Although "ls -l" indicates that the last change time of the file has changed, Ubuntu One does not synchronize it to the cloud. This is true *even after closing the hamster application or hamster-indicator*.

Probable reason
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As far as I can tell the reason is that there is a background process named "hamster-service" keeping the file hamster.db open for writing, even after the hamster application or hamster-indicator is closed. This process runs while the user is logged into the gnome session, and that's the reason why hamster.db is only synced at login. If I manually kill the "hamster-service" process, Ubuntu One immediately syncs my hamster.db to the cloud.

How to reproduce
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1. Open "hamster" or "hamster-indicator", and add some activities.
2. Open Ubuntu One control panel and add "~/.local/share/hamster-applet/" to the list of synced folders.
3. Log out of your GNOME session.
4. Log in again.
5. Observe that Ubuntu One syncs "hamster.db".
6. Open "hamster" or "hamster-indicator", and add some activities.
7. Close "hamster" or "hamster-indicator".
8. Observe that Ubuntu One does *not* sync "hamster.db".
9. Type "killall hamster-service" in a terminal.
10. Observe that Ubuntu One immediately syncs "hamster.db".

I'm not sure who's responsible here, the hamster people, the Ubuntu One people, or the people implementing the file monitoring service, but I feel that this should work.

One step to a solution may be syncing the file whenever the last change date indicates it has changed, no matter if it is still opened by any process.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: ubuntuone-client 4.0.0-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-22.34-generic 3.5.7.2
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-22-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu9
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Jan 22 22:30:16 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2010-11-28 (786 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
MarkForUpload: True
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: ubuntuone-client
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to quantal on 2012-10-20 (93 days ago)