Bug 142462 - LO BASE FILESAVE- too many unwanted backup copies lead to "low disk space" alarm
Summary: LO BASE FILESAVE- too many unwanted backup copies lead to "low disk space" alarm
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Base (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
6.4.7.2 release
Hardware: All Linux (All)
: medium minor
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2021-05-24 12:41 UTC by Richard Demattio
Modified: 2022-12-09 19:05 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
backup directory listing (8.21 MB, text/plain)
2021-05-24 12:44 UTC, Richard Demattio
Details
attachment to comment 3 (657 bytes, text/plain)
2021-10-15 18:35 UTC, Richard Demattio
Details
directory listing of backup dir (94.30 KB, text/plain)
2022-12-09 19:04 UTC, Richard Demattio
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Richard Demattio 2021-05-24 12:41:56 UTC
Description:
Setup option
Tools -> Options -> Load/Save -> general -> always create backup copy is enabled.

In this case a new backup version of BASE files are created each time you save an element like form or query or whole database, BUT NEVER DELETED.

This leads to "low disk space" alarm. See the attached backup directory listing.

The online help promises:
Always create backup copy Saves the previous version of a document as a backup copy whenever you save a document. Every time LibreOffice creates a backup copy, the previous backup copy is replaced. The backup copy gets the extension .BAK.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. it happens on every save operation
2.
3.

Actual Results:
new backup version of ODB file is created; old versions are surviving forever

Expected Results:
AS promised by help page:
Always create backup copy Saves the previous version of a document as a backup copy whenever you save a document. Every time LibreOffice creates a backup copy, the previous backup copy is replaced. The backup copy gets the extension .BAK.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No


OpenGL enabled: Yes

Additional Info:
Version: 7.1.3.2 / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 47f78053abe362b9384784d31a6e56f8511eb1c1
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 5.8; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: de-AT (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 1 Richard Demattio 2021-05-24 12:44:47 UTC
Created attachment 172290 [details]
backup directory listing
Comment 2 Robert Großkopf 2021-10-15 15:43:33 UTC
I have had the same behavior sometimes with a database. But I haven't ever set
Tools -> Options -> Load/Save -> general -> always create backup copy is enabled.

I have now tried to set it, but there isn't any copy saved of a *.odb-file. This is the default of Base: No backup will be written.

I don't know which process writes this kind of "backups" you got there. I can't reproduce it with any database, so it is difficult to find the reason for this "numbered" database files.
Comment 3 Richard Demattio 2021-10-15 18:33:08 UTC
The last time I had that behaviour with frequent backups was on 19th Sept.

At that date I fixed a problem coming from my programmed event handling in forms:
The handling on one event triggered another event, which triggered the first event again.
This is probably the reason for that big amount of backups in a short time.

When I fixed that problem I was not aware, that this could also be the reason for that kind of backups. So I forgot, which macros were the bad ones.

But this was not, what I wanted to define as bug in Libreoffice.

The question is, why does LO this kind of Backups (incrementing a number in the filename instead of saving with the extension ".bak")

Meanwhile I got that kind of backups not in that frequence when I worked with an ".XLSX" file! The backup has the name 
"842-21 Berechnung NPO-2021-1.HJ.xlsx_6.ods".
You see, the backup of ".XLSX" was extended by the number {0 to 6} and the extension ".ods"(!). I will add a dir-list of that files as attachment.
Comment 4 Richard Demattio 2021-10-15 18:35:21 UTC
Created attachment 175767 [details]
attachment to comment 3
Comment 5 Richard Demattio 2022-12-09 19:04:26 UTC
Created attachment 184070 [details]
directory listing of backup dir

The last time I had the high number of unwanted backups was on 2022-04-28.

I analuzed the backup directory today and found normal behaviour.
see attachment

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~++
Version: 7.4.2.3 / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 382eef1f22670f7f4118c8c2dd222ec7ad009daf
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 5.15; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: de-AT (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded