Just lost a whole day's work with a Sigil crash

[KevinH]

FWIW, all of my previous tests were with saving as well and editing and changing both the xhtml and css files.

I will try again, but perhaps this is a platform (Windows) specific bug?

If anyone else can recreate this bug on Windows ot any other platform and let us know how that would be a big help.

[KevinH]

Actually unlike Calibre's plugin design, Sigils plugins are inert and can not interfere with Sigil operations by design (although that choice makes them much more limited in some ways than Calibre's plugins).

So the presence or absence of plugins in Sigil is never an issue unless running the actual plugin manually.

[KevinH]

@stumped
I have now tried for an hour to get something to crash upon Save when the css tab is in the front, after editing the css, and deleting a few chapters of xhtml, etc.

For me I can not get it to crash.

Please try one thing for me: Rename your sigil.ini file to sigil.ini.keep and let Sigil 0.9.8 create its own ini file. Does the crash still happen?

Thanks,

Kevin

ps. If anyone else can recreate this problem on any platform I would love to know.

Thanks

[KevinH]

@stumped

One thing I noticed from your posted sigil.ini file was that you were reading from, and when saving, writing inside of the "Calibre Library" folder.

> lastfolderopen=C:/Users/dad/Documents/Calibre Library/Val McDermid/Splinter the Silence (4962)

I am not sure this is a good idea. I don't do this. Does Calibre want to completely control everythign in the Calibre Library folder? Does it allow changes to be made underneath? Is that epub open inside Calibre in any way at the same time?

So would you please try exporting that epub to be edited outside of Calibre to someplace safe. Then with the new exported copy, run Sigil on it and see if the crash still happens.

Does anyone else regularly run Sigil on Files directly in Calibre Library?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by KevinH

@stumped

One thing I noticed from your posted sigil.ini file was that you were reading from, and when saving, writing inside of the "Calibre Library" folder.

> lastfolderopen=C:/Users/dad/Documents/Calibre Library/Val McDermid/Splinter the Silence (4962)

I am not sure this is a good idea. I don't do this. Does Calibre want to completely control everythign in the Calibre Library folder? Does it allow changes to be made underneath? Is that epub open inside Calibre in any way at the same time?

So would you please try exporting that epub to be edited outside of Calibre to someplace safe. Then with the new exported copy, run Sigil on it and see if the crash still happens.

Does anyone else regularly run Sigil on Files directly in Calibre Library?

Yes
All the time using Kiwidude's Open with PI.
I wonder if something else had the file open (RW)?

[KevinH]

Unless I am mistaken, that plugin can cause issues by mixing Qt versions (one for Calibre, and one for Sigil) that can cause problems and that now the correct way to launch Sigil from Calibre was to use Calibre's official non-plugin internal version of "open with".

Can anyone say for sure?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Unless I am mistaken, that plugin can cause issues by mixing Qt versions (one for Calibre, and one for Sigil) that can cause problems and that now the correct way to launch Sigil from Calibre was to use Calibre's official non-plugin internal version of "open with".

Can anyone say for sure?

Someone posted a fixed version of the Kiwidude Open With plugin that utilizes the same strategy that the internal calibre Open With feature uses. It's safe to use on Windows, but it might still cause problems on Linux.

Not sure it would have a bearing on the crashing issues either way, though. The main problem was that calibre Qt plugins were being used with Sigil's Qt.

One way to rule it out would be to use calibre to open the location to the book and use OS-level file-associations to open the epub in Sigil and try to get it to crash. I open books in calibre libraries like that all the time with no issues, but maybe I've just never performed the "correct" steps to get it to crash.

[KevinH]

Are you able to recreate these crashes in any way on your Windows builds?

I am stumped as I simply can not get it to crash in the manner stumped has described.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Someone posted a fixed version of the Kiwidude Open With plugin that utilizes the same strategy that the internal calibre Open With feature uses. It's safe to use on Windows, but it might still cause problems on Linux.

Not sure it would have a bearing on the crashing issues either way, though. The main problem was that calibre Qt plugins were being used with Sigil's Qt.

One way to rule it out would be to use calibre to open the location to the book and use OS-level file-associations to open the epub in Sigil and try to get it to crash. I open books in calibre libraries like that all the time with no issues, but maybe I've just never performed the "correct" steps to get it to crash.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Are you able to recreate these crashes in any way on your Windows builds?

I am stumped as I simply can not get it to crash in the manner stumped has described.

I was able to recreate the one you detailed (and fixed), with Preview open to deleted resources. But I've not been able to get it to crash when saving after editing css (with the css tab open).

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by KevinH

... Does anyone else regularly run Sigil on Files directly in Calibre Library?

Yes most days of the week, via calibre's built in Open With feature.

I also edit other file types in calibre libraries via the same feature, e.g. DOCX, CBZ, TIFF, and audio/video files with Word, Irfanview, Audacity etc.

BR

[DiapDealer]

Perhaps we can get @stumped to confirm that he's not launching Sigil via a calibre Open With feature (either plugin or built-in) when these crashes happen?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by KevinH

1. Open any epub with extra styles in an style sheet and more than one xhtml file
2. make sure Preview is showing
3. open one of the xhtml files in the book so that it shows in CodeView *and* Preview
4. navigate to the stylesheet in book browser and double click it to open the css file in the front tab
5. Use right click in the book browser to delete the xhtml file you opened first (and still showing in Preview!)
6. With the CSS tab still open in front, invoke the Tools -> DeleteUnusedStylesheetClass and tell it to delete them when asked for confirmation
7. I crash here sometimes but other times I must try a Save.

but always in Save

Happened when an epub was opened via calibre's built-in Open With from within a calibre library, and when an epub was opened via Windows File Explorer Open With from the desktop. Which led me to conclude it has nothing to do with calibre's built in Open with.

I then tried to get it to crash when deleting the styles. All tests opened a fresh copy of the same ePub from the desktop via Windows File Explorer Open With.

The first test crashed in Save, but it must have been after it did the actual writes, because the deleted .xhtml file and the styles were gone. On the second test it crashed in Save but the deleted .xhtml file and styles were still there. I did 3 more tests, first and third crashed before any writes (i.e. ePub file was not updated) and the other one after the writes (i.e. ePub file was updated). I also did a test without Preview, no problems.

Windows 10 Pro version 1607, Sigil 0.9.8 64 bit

BR

[KevinH]

@BetterRed
That particular crash we know about and have actually fixed in master. It is caused by stale data in Preview after deleting its xhtml.

We are trying to recreate a different crash that "stumped" reported earlier in this thread. That crash happens *without* Preview open. But without Preview open/visible, just like you, I could not get a crash to happen (with nearly the same sequence of steps you cited above just no Preview showing but after having manually edited some of the css in the front tab before removing unused styles and saving).

Thanks for reporting back.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Perhaps we can get @stumped to confirm that he's not launching Sigil via a calibre Open With feature (either plugin or built-in) when these crashes happen?

I launch sigil by double clicking the book line in calibre main pane.
AFAIK that is the same as asking windows to open it. it opens in sigil because that is my windows default for epub.

I do it that way because save will then replace the book correctly in calibre library. calibre is idle while I am editing in sigil

in the most recent case, I can tweaked and saved twice , all OK. Then just as I was thinking hey this 0.9.8. is stable, i did one more tweak ( then maybe a check on delete styles) then quickly did save. I wonder if it crashed because there was still some background activity going on when I chose save.

I have the sigil defaults of mend on open, mend on save both ON. the code was all good as I had done 2 saves already. ( & this 2 mends) The final tweak was either to remove on overlooked dedication page, or it was a font-size tweak for chapter headings

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by stumped

I launch sigil by double clicking the book line in calibre main pane.
AFAIK that is the same as asking windows to open it. it opens in sigil because that is my windows default for epub.

It's very close, but not quite. calibre is still responsible for handing off the request to the OS (very likely through QDesktopServices), but it's still possible for the calling program's (calibre) environment to interfere. I've seen it happen on Linux: launched via QDesktopServices through another program doesn't work correctly ... launched via normal OS procedures works just fine.

That being said, Kovid does a great job of ensuring that calibre's environment doesn't interfere with any processes it may spawn, but I'd still like to see you recreate the crash with calibre completely out of the equation if at all possible.