Bug 321495

Summary: Add an option to limit watching to indexed folders only
Product: [Unmaintained] nepomuk Reporter: Timothée Ravier <travier>
Component: filewatchAssignee: Nepomuk Bugs Coordination <nepomuk-bugs>
Status: RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED    
Severity: wishlist CC: denis.prost, nepomuk-bugs
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: 4.10.80   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Arch Linux   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Timothée Ravier 2013-06-22 14:24:50 UTC
If I understood correctly, current nepomuk filewatchservice is watching for any change to any folder in the user home dir to make sure it keeps tags linked to file when they are moved. Due to a limitation in the linux inotify api, the service has to create a watcher for every single directory in the home directory, which could be a lot (more than 70k on my laptop).

As I have a lot of stuff in my home dir that I don't need to be indexed by nepomuk, I restricted the indexing to only a specific directory. I also don't use tags outside that specific directory.

Thus an option to limit the filewatchservice to only watching for changes in the directories selected for indexing would reduce the work to be done by nepomuk.

I think this option should be visible in the KCM with a detailed help text to enable users to make their own choice on the matter. Of course it should be disabled by default to not change default behavior.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Limit indexing to only a small selection of folders
2. Create a lot of folders anywhere else in your home dir (more than /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches)
Actual Results:  
In my case, nepomuk filewatch service watches for far to much directories for nothing.

Expected Results:  
Limit watching to only indexed directories.
Comment 1 Vishesh Handa 2015-01-23 16:25:22 UTC
Thank you for taking the time to file a bug report.

The Nepomuk project is no longer included in the KDE Software Compilation. With Plasma 5, we have replaced most of the underlying technology with Baloo and other components. Hopefully this will have addressed your concern.

We encourage you to try to Plasma 5 (+Baloo) and let us know if your problem persists.