BC sets wrong hiden file atributes on windows guests

[jobolt6]

Environment and How-To reproduce the bug:
VirtualBox (oracle's virtual machine from virtualbox.org) running on Linux.
Host machine : Linux (Fedora 18)
Guest Machine : Windows XP SP3
There is a "Shared Folder" on the Linux host.
The "Shared Folder" is mapped as drive "E:" on Windows XP guest machine.
Use "Beyond Compare" on Windows XP to compare Drive "C:" to drive "E:" and to copy/move files between the two drives.

The files and folders on Drive "E:" are seen erroneously as hidden files.

All files and folders are marked as hidden when they are copied from the shared folder into the c:drive of the virtual machine using Beyond compare.

A simple copy paste using windows explorer works normally. Any other program I ever use does not present any problems.

Thus, IMHO this is a Beyond Compare BUG (and NOT Windows or Virtualbox bug).

I hope this may be of help to you to improve the product and also, if this is not the correct place to report a bug, please do that for me.

[jobolt6]

What happens? Aren't there any moderators or scootersoftware employees that could at least give a feedback to this and other bug reports I am seeing in the forum?

I am deeply disappointed.

[Aaron]

We try to answer questions as quickly as possible when posted to the forum. We have a bit of a backlog and are not able to answer all inquires as quickly as we'd like.

As for the above issue, you've posted in the Linux forum, but you mention running "Beyond Compare 3" in the Windows XP virtual machine. From the virtual machine's perspective, this is a Windows install of BC3 accessing two drives in the Windows machine, correct? A local c:\, and an E:\ that points to a remote location. How is E:\ configured? Is it using samba?

And to clarify, you have tested with Windows Explorer running from the virtual machine, and BC3 running from the virtual machine, correct?

The bug is not the copy method. If BC3 is falsely detecting the hidden attribute on the E:\ side of the comparison, any further interactions will include this as well. We would need to troubleshoot why "H" is assigned to all files in E:\ first.
Could we get a full screen screenshot of this comparison loaded in the interface?

Also, are you using the latest version of BC3 (3.3.8)? Please update if not; all BC 3.x updates are free for 3.x users, and are available on our website or from the Help menu -> Check for Updates.

[jobolt6]

...From the virtual machine's perspective, this is a Windows install of BC3 accessing two drives in the Windows machine, correct?

Yes it is a kind of mixed windows/linux/virtualmachine issue. It is a beyond compare (version 3.3.8.16340) running on a Windows XP virtual machine running on virtualbox (any virtualbox version 4.x). Virtualbox itself is running on a Linux Host. I tested this issue in Fedora 16,17,18 and Ubuntu 13.10).
The bug does not show when the host machine is Windows.
That is why I classified this as a Linux issue. It will need someone with some Linux knowledge to fix the bug.

...A local c:\, and an E:\ that points to a remote location. How is E:\ configured? Is it using samba?

Case 1) Step1: Create a folder named /shared_folder on linux host. sudo chmod 777 /shared_folder to give it full read/write/execute permissions for user,group and others. Step2: Now launch the virtualbox main window and select your win XP virtual machine and edit its properties to create a shared folder. Select your /shared_folder give it read/write access and select auto mount. Step 3: Populate this folder with a few folders and files. Step 4: Launch the virtual machine. Your new shared folder automatically appears in your virtual machine mapped as the next available drive (E: in my case). Step 5: Select c:\ and e:\ for comparison under beyond compare. Using beyond compare just click double click any folder on the e: window to see that it is hown with a (h) hidden attribute. If you copy that folder into drive c it will be a hidden folder. Every single folder in the mapped drive is hidden.

Case 2) Now use the beyond compare browse button to select \\VBOXSVR\shared_folder. Same bug.

Case 3) Browse a shared samba folder (whithout mapping it to a drive letter, for example: //samba_server/your/samba_shared_folder). It works OK the atributes are correct.

Case 4) Now map the Samba shared folder to a drive letter. Still works OK.

Thus it appears to be a beyond compare bug when it reads any Virtualbox Shared Folders, no matter if it is mapped as a drive letter or picked directly from the network neighborhood.

And to clarify, you have tested with Windows Explorer running from the virtual machine, and BC3 running from the virtual machine, correct?

Yes, windows explorer and beyond compare always running in windows virtual guest machine.

...We would need to troubleshoot why "H" is assigned to all files in E:\ first.

Perfect. this is the bug., and this is what we need to fix.

[jobolt6]

Two months have passed, and you never replied to at least inform if you were able to reproduce the bug (very easy) and have accepted it as a bug and if you have or not decided to fix it.

My back ground is from open source software where things are very dynamic, and it is frustrating to see that you do not care about the quality of your product by not giving adequate feedback.

Nonetheless I still am interested in having some feedback regarding the fix of this particular bug.

I remain waiting ... waiting ...

[Zoë]

Hi Jobolt,

We spent a day on it a while ago but didn't make significant progress. BC's file handling in this case is just calling operating system functions, and given that it works everywhere else I think it's very likely it's a bug in VirtualBox and not BC. In any case, unless we hear from other users experiencing the same issue we can't spend more time look into it right now. If your license is currently Windows only and you'd like it switched to a dual-platform one to work around the issue contact [email protected] with your details and a link to this thread and they should be able to help you out.