[GRASSLIST:9487] aaargh! another location lost

Hi all, so I hate to write about this again, but somehow I have had another location erased while using imagery commands. This is the second time this has happened to me. I have a hard time narrowing down how it happened this time, but last time I was using i.points, and a location disappeared (~300 MB of data) (GRASSLIST 8827). This time I couldn't pin down which imagery command did it (I can only pin it down to a 5 minute time frame), but I again encountered problems using i.points. I tried to run the program, but got a 'false start' where after entering the imagery group in the pop-up terminal window, the terminal window disappeared, and i.points never started up. Within minutes after this, I noticed that the target location had been erased (another ~500 MB down the drain). Again, checking my bash_history, there is nothing there that would indicate a command that would do this. I have also checked my whole computer for this location (or any files in it), to no avail.

I am running 6.1cvs (Dec-12 Lorenzo's binaries) on mac 10.3.9.

I can't understand what can be happening. I have tried repeating my steps exactly, and can not get the same error in the program to occur. I have no idea how to isolate the issue at all. I have had no other troubles with this computer in 1.5 years of use, it has plenty of memory, and runs really smooth (like most macs).

This is really strange behavior obviously, but very troublesome to me since it has happened twice now, though with slightly different causes.

I have no idea how to test for this behavior, and looking at the responses from last time, I am not sure how they could necessarily result in this behavior multiple times. Any other ideas out there?

-Ian

PS I know I need to back up data, and I do, but this is still infuriating.

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Ian MacMillan wrote:

Hi all, so I hate to write about this again, but somehow I have had another location erased while using imagery commands. This is the second time this has happened to me. I have a hard time narrowing down how it happened this time, but last time I was using i.points, and a location disappeared (~300 MB of data) (GRASSLIST 8827). This time I couldn't pin down which imagery command did it (I can only pin it down to a 5 minute time frame), but I again encountered problems using i.points. I tried to run the program, but got a 'false start' where after entering the imagery group in the pop-up terminal window, the terminal window disappeared, and i.points never started up. Within minutes after this, I noticed that the target location had been erased (another ~500 MB down the drain). Again, checking my bash_history, there is nothing there that would indicate a command that would do this. I have also checked my whole computer for this location (or any files in it), to no avail.

I am running 6.1cvs (Dec-12 Lorenzo's binaries) on mac 10.3.9.

I can't understand what can be happening. I have tried repeating my steps exactly, and can not get the same error in the program to occur. I have no idea how to isolate the issue at all. I have had no other troubles with this computer in 1.5 years of use, it has plenty of memory, and runs really smooth (like most macs).

This is really strange behavior obviously, but very troublesome to me since it has happened twice now, though with slightly different causes.

I have no idea how to test for this behavior, and looking at the responses from last time, I am not sure how they could necessarily result in this behavior multiple times. Any other ideas out there?

-Ian

PS I know I need to back up data, and I do, but this is still infuriating.

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At the risk of suggesting the obvious, have you run a virus scan? I could see perhaps a corrupted file, but completely erased suggests something other than GRASS. Do you have a disk utiltiy which can unerase or recover files?

I wouldn't have the temerity to suggest something so obvious, except for the fact that the Mac is seldom visited by viruses. As a result, we often fail to check for them regularly.

Ian MacMillan wrote:

Hi all, so I hate to write about this again, but somehow I have had
another location erased while using imagery commands. This is the
second time this has happened to me. I have a hard time narrowing down
how it happened this time, but last time I was using i.points, and a
location disappeared (~300 MB of data) (GRASSLIST 8827). This time I
couldn't pin down which imagery command did it (I can only pin it down
to a 5 minute time frame), but I again encountered problems using
i.points. I tried to run the program, but got a 'false start' where
after entering the imagery group in the pop-up terminal window, the
terminal window disappeared, and i.points never started up. Within
minutes after this, I noticed that the target location had been erased
(another ~500 MB down the drain). Again, checking my bash_history,
there is nothing there that would indicate a command that would do
this. I have also checked my whole computer for this location (or any
files in it), to no avail.

Do any of the directory names involved (database, location, mapset,
map names) contain any "odd" characters (e.g. spaces or symbols)?

i.points uses system() to execute various commands, which tends not to
work correctly if a file or directory name includes any characters
which are sigificant to the shell.

Also, are you sure that the location has actually been removed, and
not just moved to some obscure location? You might try running e.g.:

  find / -type d -name PERMANENT -print
  find / -type f -name WIND

--
Glynn Clements <glynn@gclements.plus.com>

Lorenzo and others, I have tried to re-create this scenario several times, but can't repeat it (only the two times I have written about). I can't tell you if it would happen without using the aqua interface, but each time it did happen while I was using that interface (I am not sure if it could have anything to do with it or not).

The file names of the locations were rather simple:
worldmerc
latlong_wgs84

the mapset names were just:
ianmacmillan

I tried to find these locations on my system, but they haven't been moved. I have looked for individual files within the mapsets, and can't find those either.

I am currently running a virus scan on my computer, but I doubt that is it as the only data loss I have ever experienced are these two locations, and they were both the target locations of the imagery groups that I was working on while the loss happened.

Thanks all for your thoughts (keep em coming), I will keep trying to figure things out on my end as well.

-Ian

On Dec 15, 2005, at 8:51 AM, Lorenzo Moretti wrote:

Hi Ian

Hi all, so I hate to write about this again, but somehow I have had another location erased while using imagery commands. This is the second time this has happened to me. I have a hard time narrowing down how it happened this time, but last time I was using i.points, and a location disappeared (~300 MB of data) (GRASSLIST 8827). This time I couldn't pin down which imagery command did it (I can only pin it down to a 5 minute time frame), but I again encountered problems using i.points. I tried to run the program, but got a 'false start' where after entering the imagery group in the pop-up terminal window, the terminal window disappeared, and i.points never started up. Within minutes after this, I noticed that the target location had been erased (another ~500 MB down the drain). Again, checking my bash_history, there is nothing there that would indicate a command that would do this. I have also checked my whole computer for this location (or any files in it), to no avail.

I am running 6.1cvs (Dec-12 Lorenzo's binaries) on mac 10.3.9.

I can't understand what can be happening. I have tried repeating my steps exactly, and can not get the same error in the program to occur. I have no idea how to isolate the issue at all. I have had no other troubles with this computer in 1.5 years of use, it has plenty of memory, and runs really smooth (like most macs).

This is really strange behavior obviously, but very troublesome to me since it has happened twice now, though with slightly different causes.

I have no idea how to test for this behavior, and looking at the responses from last time, I am not sure how they could necessarily result in this behavior multiple times. Any other ideas out there?

-Ian

PS I know I need to back up data, and I do, but this is still infuriating.

This is a tragedy.

For a test.

Test under X11 only (menu and xterm) and under X11 and Aqua menu (menu).

Duplicate another location and re-try the i.points.

Try and send me the result.

and you wrote

Has anyone found out why malloc errors are appearing using v.in.ascii with Lorenzo's binaries? I can't import any ascii files using 6.1cvs anymore, I have to revert back to 6.0. The exact same commands that produce an error like:

*** malloc[9282]: Deallocation of a pointer not malloced: 0x501740; This could be a double free(), or free() called with the middle of an allocated block; Try setting environment variable MallocHelp to see tools to help debug
*** malloc[9282]: Deallocation of a pointer not malloced: 0x501740; This could be a double free(), or free() called with the middle of an allocated block; Try setting environment variable MallocHelp to see tools to help debug
*** malloc[9282]: Deallocation of a pointer not malloced: 0x501740; This could be a double free(), or free() called with the middle of an allocated block; Try setting environment variable MallocHelp to see tools to help debug
*** malloc[9282]: error for object 0x501740: Incorrect checksum for freed object - object was probably modified after being freed; break at szone_error
Segmentation fault

work using 6.0. I have run into this problem intermittently since early October, and have seen it mentioned a few other times on this list since then.

Any ideas?

Thanks for your time,
Ian

Send me your specific ascii file (tell me the coordinates) because I want to test with other libraries. I don't know if it is a library problem.

Bye

-- __________________________________________________________________________
|| Lorenzo Moretti e-mail: lorenzo.moretti@bologna.enea.it ||/|/| ENEA prot/idr Web: http://wwwamb.bologna.enea.it/ || | via Don Fiammelli, 2 FTP: ftp://ftpamb.bologna.enea.it/ (ris.)
~~~~~~ 40128 BOLOGNA - ITALY Ph: +39-0516098086 Fax: +39-0516098131
ENEA - Ente Nazionale per le Nuove Tecnologie, l'Energia e l'Ambiente
ENEA - The Italian Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment
__________________________________________________________________________

>
What happens if a big asteroid hits Earth? Judging from realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad.
  - Dave Barry

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