Error parsing compressed file but reads uncompressed ok

[John Ralls]

On Nov 5, 2013, at 7:36 AM, Colin Law <clanlaw at googlemail.com> wrote:

> On 5 November 2013 14:57, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
>> 
>> On Nov 5, 2013, at 6:46 AM, Colin Law <clanlaw at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> On 5 November 2013 12:39, Colin Law <clanlaw at googlemail.com> wrote:
>>>> I find today that I cannot open my compressed xml accounts file, I get
>>>> a parse error opening the file.  I am using version 2.4.13 (on Ubuntu
>>>> 13.10).  If I uncompress the file with gunzip it will open ok, but if
>>>> I I save it compressed again then again it will not reopen.
>>>> I can read the same compressed file ok with version 2.4.10 (on Ubuntu
>>>> 12.04), and if I save it with version 2.4.10 then I can re-open it
>>>> with version 2.4.13.
>>> 
>>> In fact I see that even if I make a new trivial file and save it
>>> compressed then I cannot re-open it.  Either something has got messed
>>> up in my system or an update has introduced a bug.
>>> 
>> There haven't been any updates to Gnucash-2.4.13. The fact that you can fix the problem by unzipping by hand suggests that there's a problem either with libz on Ubuntu 13-10 or with GC's linkage to it.
> 
> In fact I see I was wrong about it failing with a trivial file.  I
> have gone back through the backups and find that I can still open the
> file from earlier today but cannot open ones after a certain point, so
> it does seem to be related to this particular file.  I have tried on
> another Ubuntu system running ubuntu Trusty daily build and see the
> same problem, so it is not related to user settings.
> 
> I had a vague recollection of a similar problem reported on the forum
> a few weeks ago, but can't find it now.
> 
> I guess you must be right, for some reason gnucash is unable to
> correctly unzip this particular file.  Any suggestions on how to
> progress this further?  I could send the file privately to someone if
> they wanted to have a look at it.
> 

There was a similar complaint from someone using OSX on the users list on 21 October, but the user didn't follow up on troubleshooting. 

Try making a debug build of GC and libz using the source .deb and debugging. Set your first breakpoint at try_gz_open and see what's going on.

Regards,
John Ralls