Is there a solution to the verification race condition on mac?

[John Ralls]

> On Jan 14, 2016, at 4:43 PM, bunk3m <bunk3m at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On 14.01.2016 09:55, John Ralls wrote:
>> 
>>> On Jan 13, 2016, at 8:05 PM, bunk3m <bunk3m at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Very strange story similar to tanjao and Michael re "Installing on iMac".
>>> 
>>> I used 2.6.9-1 on my MBP about 10 days ago without problem.
>>> 
>>> I noticed in the list the release of 2.6.11-1 so I downloaded it today and installed it as I always do. (drag and drop the app & files into Applications).
>>> 
>>> I opened Gnucash and got the verification window which never goes way. My MBP fans start screaming.  So I start up htop and I see a process starting to using 200-300% of the processor and eating up more and more memory.  When I killed the Gnucash app, it was approaching 8GB RAM and 15GB Virtual memory.
>>> 
>>> So I deleted 2.6.11-1 and reinstalled 2.6.9-1.  Unfortunately 2.6.9-1 now has the same behaviour.
>>> 
>>> I restarted the MBP and tried to start 2.6.9-1 again hoping I could complete some accounting entries and the race condition starts all over again.
>>> 
>>> I'm on a 2015 MBP; OS 10.10.5; Quad i7.
>>> 
>>> I noticed this issue has been outlined by a couple of people so was wondering if there is a solution?
>> 
>> Not at all similar to the previous thread, other than the bit about the "verification window which never goes way", by which I suppose you mean the "You downloaded this from the internet" dialog.
>> 
>> Instead of using htop, use /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor. Select GnuCash and click the "i" button in the upper left corner. After the sample completes use the "save" button in the upper right corner of its window and attach the result to your reply.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> John Ralls
>> 
> Thank you for the reply John,
> 
> The snapshot of the "Verifying Gnucash" window is attached.
> 
> It is the launchd & CoreServicesUIAgent that are invoked somehow through the Gnucash start that go nuts.  In particular the CoreServicesUIAgent that eats up memory like no tomorrow.
> 
> Once I force quit Gnucash.app, then CoreServicesUIAgent slows down to essentially 0% CPU and the memory usage drops down.
> 
> I will send the the Activity Monitor file for both Gnucash.app and CoreServicesUIAgent to you directly and not the list.
> 
> In pleasant but unexpected event tonight as I write this email, I retried Gnucash 2.6.9-1 and it took about 3 min. to complete the "Verifying Gnucash" but actually completed the process and now I can use my files.  I haven't changed anything in my set-up since yesterday so unsure what has happened.
> 
> I will try the 2.3.11-1 install and run again and see if it works now.
> 
> Gremlins??

Gremlins are always possible. ;-)

Hmm, 3 minutes? Verifying 2.6.11 took something like 3 seconds on my 2010 MBA running 10.11.2, a *much* slower machine. It doesn't have a copy of my signing certificate on it (I travel with it and don't want to risk compromising the certificate if I lose it), so that isn't why. I don't think I've ever seen it take more than a few seconds for any app. CoreServicesUIAgent is apparently the program that does the verification, so it's no doubt what's at fault, but it's an Apple program, not something I can do anything about. It does seem unlikely that Apple would want to hang regardless of what it's fed, but they're likely to tell you to upgrade to 10.11 and try again if you report it.

Regards,
John Ralls