/usr/bin/bcompare: line 45: Aborted

[fantom]

Running BC4 64-bit Version 4.1.6 (build 21095)

I'm trying to open multiple tabs for multiple individual file diffs all at once. I cannot find a way to directly do this via a single command with BC4, but can set multiple sessions to open as tabs. So I'm using bash to start multiple diffs. This frequently causes the following crash:

/usr/bin/bcompare: line 45: 8489 Aborted (core dumped) /bin/bash -c "exec -a $0 $EXEC $ARGS > /dev/null 2>&1" $0

If I set my loop to sleep 1 second between opening sessions, the crash goes away. However, even 0.5s sleep is not enough and that's unusable for diffing 20 files at once.

[fantom]

The script I'm using is from here: https://www.scootersoftware.com/v...-pairs-of-file

So it seems this used to work, but broke at some point.

[Aaron]

Hello,

The script you've linked is to BC3 for Linux working with an older version of Perforce on Ubuntu, which may be a combination that is more robust for multiple quick calls. These issues can often come down to a specific OS version, VCS version, and BC(3.x) version. For example, BC3 might have handled this scneario better or might have launched slowly enough that it didn't need the extra sleep step.

Which version of Linux are you running, and which version of Perforce?

[fantom]

Sorry for the late reply. Was expecting to get an email for any activity on my thread.

Linux version 3.13.0-88-generic (buildd@lgw01-16) (gcc version 4.8.4 (Ubuntu 4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.3) ) #135-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jun 8 21:10:42 UTC 2016

My company uses a custom version of Perforce. The multidiff syntax is the same as standard Perforce with colon separated file pairs.

I just downloaded BC 3.3.13 (Build 18981). The script works without issue without any sleeps.

This looks like a BC4 race condition. Can you repro on your end with BC4? It will likely repro on any Linux and Perforce clients.

[Aaron]

Thanks for checking BC3. Roughly how many tabs are launching at once? Are they all Text Compare sessions? And how large are the files?

I've reproduced the behavior you are seeing, but it does not occur commonly with my dataset.

[fantom]

They are all text (java code) comparisons. File size doesn't seem particularly important, but they average a couple hundred lines each with some small files mixed in. I've had it occur with as few as 4 tabs, but usually takes 6 or 7 tabs. All files have at least some change.

[fantom]

Hi, I'm curious if there are any updates here or any fixes planned for BC4. I've been using BC3 since discovering the crash, but I have a full license for BC4 and my BC3 trial period will run out soon.

A fix that let's me (and the 4 others in the license batch) get back to using BC4 would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[Aaron]

Hello,

This is still an open issue in our tracker, and we haven't had the free resources to schedule it out yet.

If you write in to [email protected], we can provide a BC3 specific key so you won't have to worry about the time limit/trial. Please include a link back to this forum thread and your BC4 serial number and purchase info.

[fantom]

Where exactly is the issue tracker? Best I can tell, issues are just tracked in the forum. Is this thread itself the tracking for this issue? It's now been over 6 months without seeing any updates on this issue. We purchased 5 licenses and have yet to use your product due to this bug.

Is there an expected date for a fix? Some other place to track progress on this issue?

Thanks.

[Chris]

The issue tracker is internal to our company, we don't have a public issue tracker.

We just released Beyond Compare 4.2 beta earlier this week, it has a number of bug fixes in it. Please try 4.2 beta and let us know if you're still seeing the crashes in the newer version.

Beta page: http://www.scootersoftware.com/download.php?zz=beta42

[fantom]

After some testing over the past 2 days, the issue appears to be resolved in 4.2 beta. I no longer see a crash with the script linked to above in #2.