save bug

[Sebastien Millet]

Hello,

I need help with a strange bug in GnuCash 1.8.5 when the file is saved
(bug is also present in 1.8.4).
I haven't upgraded to 1.8.7 yet (7mb download with a 56kbps modem, what
about releasing patches ?), but i saw nothing refering to this bug
in the changelogs.

Sometimes, when i save the file (via the "Save" icon of the main
window), the created file is truncated at 80KB (81920 bytes, no more, no
less), and since the file normally has a size of about 100KB, i lose
every operation made since January 2003, quite frustrating.
GnuCash don't display any error message when it happens.

When it happens I load the last backup, enter the missing operations
again and save as the main file. I never have been able to use "replay
log" function, it does nothing after selecting the log file.

More problematic, sometimes the backup file is also truncated at 80KB,
so i am obliged to load an older backup and re-enter more operations.

For example, here is the current file :
81920 sep 16 18:52 GnuCash

And the automatic backups I cutrently have :
95715 aoû 19 22:23 GnuCash.20030819222329.xac
95865 aoû 20 05:46 GnuCash.20030820054620.xac
96006 aoû 21 01:46 GnuCash.20030821014657.xac
96179 aoû 21 20:12 GnuCash.20030821201208.xac
96470 aoû 21 22:28 GnuCash.20030821222858.xac
81920 aoû 22 19:40 GnuCash.20030822194043.xac
81920 aoû 22 19:56 GnuCash.20030822195635.xac
81920 aoû 23 00:23 GnuCash.20030823002342.xac
96461 aoû 23 00:30 GnuCash.20030823003054.xac
96894 aoû 25 23:49 GnuCash.20030825234915.xac
97079 aoû 26 00:13 GnuCash.20030826001334.xac
97222 aoû 31 00:02 GnuCash.20030831000216.xac
97509 aoû 31 00:53 GnuCash.20030831005354.xac
99679 sep 5 15:01 GnuCash.20030905150144.xac
101624 sep 6 23:58 GnuCash.20030906235857.xac
101651 sep 8 16:13 GnuCash.20030908161314.xac
101877 sep 12 17:13 GnuCash.20030912171338.xac
102215 sep 12 19:47 GnuCash.20030912194728.xac
102335 sep 15 05:39 GnuCash.20030915053914.xac
102488 sep 16 18:17 GnuCash.20030916181730.xac
102545 sep 16 18:39 GnuCash.20030916183940.xac
81920 sep 16 18:43 GnuCash.20030916184333.xac
81920 sep 16 18:52 GnuCash.20030916185222.xac

Notice the last two are corrupted, so are some older ones.

The files are stored on an ext2 partition shared from another computer
with Samba and mounted with umask 077, so its like an FAT partition with
chmod 700 on all files. I never had any problem with other apps, same
share contains all my OpenOffice files, a few images, etc.
And yes, there is enough space left, about 3GB.

I did not successfully reproduced the bug on a local ext2 partition, but
i've done only a few tests and bugs are always showing when we don't
expect so :-)

At this moment, if i open backup 20030916183940 (the last good) and do
nothing but save as "GnuCash", my main file name, the file is truncated
at 80KB.

After 3 "save as" (for this time, sometimes it takes less, sometimes
more), it successfully creates a 100KB file.

I think it's a critical bug, because if i don't care the file is not
truncated at 80KB before closing GnuCash, i lose everything from the 8
last monthes, and i don't have all the data available elsewhere.

Thanks in advance for your help.