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    • Claudia FrankC
      Claudia Frank @Jeremy Jordan
      last edited by

      @Jeremy-Jordan

      but this looks like the file content has been replaced with binary data - hard to believe that npp is responsible for that.
      I assume that your issue must be caused by something else.

      Cheers
      Claudia

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • PeterJonesP
        PeterJones
        last edited by

        @Jeremy-Jordan,

        As @Claudia-Frank said, that’s binary data, not just NULLs. If that’s really happened to a file that was plain text, you’ve either edited it with some other editor which has encoded it, or the file has been encrypted. If you weren’t expecting the file to be encrypted, then there’s (unfortunately) a very high probability you’ve been infected with a virus, ransomware, or other malware. Please run a reputable scanner ASAP.

        Since many forms of viruses, ransomware, and other malware make your data unrecoverable, I am hoping you have a separate backup of any essential data. But don’t try to access that backup until you know the computer you are on is clean – I’d hate for your backup to become infected as well.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
        • Michael SimcichM
          Michael Simcich
          last edited by

          I have an interesting variation on a theme to report. Yesterday I worked most of the day on a set of text files; some xls files, and asp.net files loaded into visual studio. Most work was done by 9 pm; I had saved those files many times during the day’s work. At about 11:30 pm the pc became increasingly unresponsive and eventually I had to reset it. The pc booted normally. I left it on all night so that the daily Acronis backup, which seemed to have stalled in the evening (and may have been the source of the system failure) could do it’s thing.

          This AM I found that all of those files (.net, .xls, .txt in notepad++) were corrupted, with the text and .net files showing as NULL everywhere. I don’t have Backup on Save turned on. Session snapshot and periodic backup are on, probably default settings as I’ve never known about np++ backup features before today, but there are no recent files in that dir. I have various types of backups to fall back on.

          But the main reason I’m posting this is that the NULL blowout happened to other files that were not in use by notepad++. I personally don’t recall ever having file data losses like this before, ever; but it doesn’t seem to be true that it’s an issue with notepad++, or at least only notepad++.

          Claudia FrankC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • Claudia FrankC
            Claudia Frank @Michael Simcich
            last edited by Claudia Frank

            @Michael-Simcich

            you are right, this issue can happen with any software if the requirements are fulfilled.
            Basically it is this, a thread has opened the file and then something happens which forces
            the operating system to kill the process. In this situation a thread might not be able to close
            the file correctly which then results in a corrupted file.

            I’m able to reproduce this with a 32bit npp version and file around ~100MB where backup is enabled and
            the system is under load. If, for example, I would convert everything to uppercase,
            under this condition, ~1 out of 10 times npp freezes, dies and backup file only is corrupted.
            But if you restart npp, then it looks like the real file is corrupted, just because npp loaded the backup file as it wasn’t saved correctly at this time.
            Unfortunately I wasn’t able to reproduce this behavior running npp under the debugger and
            haven’t found out yet whether the cpu, memory or io load or a combination of those is needed
            to reproduce it. This happens, for me, only on a 32bit version of npp with activated backup,
            on a 64bit version I was not able to reproduce this behavior, even with larger files. Tested with 1GB.

            Cheers
            Claudia

            Michael SimcichM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
            • pnedevP
              pnedev
              last edited by

              Hi @Claudia-Frank ,

              Very good analysis indeed.
              Can I ask you to test your failing scenario with a test build of mine?
              It is the official v7.5.8 but with a fix I did on the locking mechanics of the file during backup. Here is the 32-bit binary:
              https://ci.appveyor.com/api/buildjobs/bjaisvrte85g4o0a/artifacts/Notepad%2B%2B.Win32.Unicode Release.exe

              Thank you for trying this and writing back, I appreciate it.

              BR

              Claudia FrankC 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
              • Claudia FrankC
                Claudia Frank @pnedev
                last edited by

                Hi @pnedev

                Thx for the build, I will do the test later today - need to go to work soon.

                Cheers
                Claudia

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • Michael SimcichM
                  Michael Simcich @Claudia Frank
                  last edited by

                  @Claudia-Frank thanks for that clear explanation.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • Claudia FrankC
                    Claudia Frank @pnedev
                    last edited by Claudia Frank

                    @pnedev

                    I found this file from this issue thread and it seems that this file can be used to confirm that the backup is the culprit.
                    Unfortunattely your build is crashing also when doing the trim trailing spaces action.
                    I’m currently running some tests like doing it 100 times in a row and 100 times after restart npp … to see if this is really the case.

                    The test file is a bit unusual as I described in the issue thread and needs to be investigated as well
                    but at least it looks like there is a reliable way to crash npp and therefore a chance to find out what it is causing it.
                    Whether or how NULL backup files are involved can’t be said at the moment.

                    Cheers
                    Claudia

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                    • pnedevP
                      pnedev
                      last edited by

                      Hi @Claudia-Frank ,

                      Thanks for trying and for pointing to that file.
                      I can do some tests on my own now.

                      BR

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • pnedevP
                        pnedev
                        last edited by

                        OK, I think I got what the problem is.
                        This is the cause for the problem in this issue as well.

                        Backup is running in a separate thread as can be seen in Notepad_plus.cpp, void Notepad_plus::launchDocumentBackupTask() .
                        What it does is periodically executing Buffer.cpp, bool FileManager::backupCurrentBuffer() .

                        Now imagine that we launch a long-running operation in Notepad++ from the user thread.
                        While it is running and doing its processing on the Scintilla buffer the periodic backup thread kicks.
                        The bool FileManager::backupCurrentBuffer() is called which GETS THE RAW SCINTILLA BUFFER POINTER here:

                        FILE *fp = UnicodeConvertor.fopen(fullpath, TEXT("wb"));
                        if (fp)
                        {
                        int lengthDoc = _pNotepadPlus->_pEditView->getCurrentDocLen();
                        char* buf = (char*)_pNotepadPlus->_pEditView->execute(SCI_GETCHARACTERPOINTER); //to get characters directly from Scintilla buffer

                        Now backup can be written at once or in portions depending if WcharMbcsConvertor *wmc = WcharMbcsConvertor::getInstance() conversions are needed BUT anyway:

                        WHILE BACKUP FILE IS BEING WRITTEN FROM THE RAW SCINTILLA BUFFER,
                        THE SCINTILLA BUFFER ITSELF IS BEING UPDATED BY THE USER LONG RUNNING OPERATION THREAD (THIS MIGHT EVEN INCLUDE BUFFER RELOCATION IF MORE MEMORY ALLOCATION IS NEEDED).

                        I’ll have to figure out a proper way to fix that now.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
                        • pnedevP
                          pnedev
                          last edited by

                          One update:

                          The bool FileManager::backupCurrentBuffer() properly locks LongRunningOperation so the concurrent Scintilla buffer access shouldn’t happen during backup but it seems it still does. Which means the LongRunningOperation lock is not done properly for Trim trailing spaces and Find and Replace in Files and probably in other places.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                          • pnedevP
                            pnedev
                            last edited by

                            Hi again @Claudia-Frank ,

                            Could you please try again with this binary:
                            https://ci.appveyor.com/api/buildjobs/3tfm2eeubr9hg9y9/artifacts/Notepad%2B%2B.Win32.Unicode Release.exe ?

                            It has fix for Trim trailing spaces and I cannot reproduce the issue on my side anymore.
                            Sorry to bother you again, I appreciate your help.

                            BR

                            Claudia FrankC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                            • Claudia FrankC
                              Claudia Frank @pnedev
                              last edited by

                              Hi @pnedev

                              Sorry to bother you again, I appreciate your help.

                              No problem, if I can be of any help I will do so but same as yesterday, I will do the test later today.
                              I’m on late shift this week.

                              Cheers
                              Claudia

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                              • pnedevP
                                pnedev
                                last edited by

                                Hi again @Claudia-Frank ,

                                I have made official pull request addressing the issue:
                                https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/pull/4803 .

                                The corresponding x86 binary is:
                                https://ci.appveyor.com/api/buildjobs/p3t4vsd8lj202wjm/artifacts/Notepad%2B%2B.Win32.Unicode Release.exe .

                                This needs to be thoroughly tested though as it changes the way backup is performed.
                                I hope it fixes the file corruption problems observed so far but only time will tell.

                                Thank you.

                                BR

                                Claudia FrankC 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 4
                                • Claudia FrankC
                                  Claudia Frank @pnedev
                                  last edited by Claudia Frank

                                  Hi @pnedev

                                  I’m currently thinking of the using the test file and add additional data to fulfill
                                  the requirements for all modification actions like find/replace, trim, convert case …
                                  basically what can be done using edit/search/view menu (encoding menu I’m unsure atm??)

                                  Then I run each action to see that if it crashes npp with the original npp binary and your build.
                                  Afterwards I’m doing long running test which means each action do get executed 100 times
                                  in a row and a following test of 1000 random actions in a row.

                                  I will be using python script plugin as the only additional plugin and the test would be something like

                                  while counter < 100
                                      notepad.menuCommand(ACTION_ID)
                                      editor.undo()
                                  

                                  and modified for having 1000 iterations with random ACTION_ID

                                  I know, having an additional plugin loaded might have impact on the test itself but
                                  if the result is success then it should be ok. If not I do it manually with minimum npp setup.

                                  What do you think?
                                  @all - any additional ideas?

                                  Cheers
                                  Claudia

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                  • Claudia FrankC
                                    Claudia Frank
                                    last edited by

                                    A test to see if the backup file gets created correctly is needed too.

                                    Cheers
                                    Claudia

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                    • Claudia FrankC
                                      Claudia Frank @pnedev
                                      last edited by Claudia Frank

                                      @pnedev

                                      I can confirm that your build didn’t crash when running the trim_trailing_space test.
                                      1st results - 100 successful runs

                                      Run | compare document and backupfile hashes | runtime in sec | undo deleted backup file
                                      ========================================================================================
                                      1   |                   ok                   |     31.40      |            ok           
                                      2   |                   ok                   |     31.38      |            ok           
                                      3   |                   ok                   |     31.60      |            ok           
                                      4   |                   ok                   |     31.78      |            ok           
                                      5   |                   ok                   |     32.28      |            ok           
                                      6   |                   ok                   |     32.25      |            ok           
                                      7   |                   ok                   |     33.00      |            ok           
                                      8   |                   ok                   |     32.94      |            ok           
                                      9   |                   ok                   |     31.59      |            ok           
                                      10  |                   ok                   |     31.62      |            ok           
                                      11  |                   ok                   |     31.56      |            ok           
                                      12  |                   ok                   |     31.67      |            ok           
                                      13  |                   ok                   |     31.66      |            ok           
                                      14  |                   ok                   |     31.41      |            ok           
                                      15  |                   ok                   |     31.32      |            ok           
                                      16  |                   ok                   |     31.46      |            ok           
                                      17  |                   ok                   |     31.68      |            ok           
                                      18  |                   ok                   |     32.92      |            ok           
                                      19  |                   ok                   |     33.97      |            ok           
                                      20  |                   ok                   |     33.94      |            ok           
                                      21  |                   ok                   |     32.90      |            ok           
                                      22  |                   ok                   |     33.56      |            ok           
                                      23  |                   ok                   |     34.08      |            ok           
                                      24  |                   ok                   |     34.69      |            ok           
                                      25  |                   ok                   |     38.68      |            ok           
                                      26  |                   ok                   |     38.63      |            ok           
                                      27  |                   ok                   |     38.36      |            ok           
                                      28  |                   ok                   |     38.22      |            ok           
                                      29  |                   ok                   |     39.75      |            ok           
                                      30  |                   ok                   |     39.57      |            ok           
                                      31  |                   ok                   |     39.72      |            ok           
                                      32  |                   ok                   |     39.29      |            ok           
                                      33  |                   ok                   |     37.99      |            ok           
                                      34  |                   ok                   |     38.21      |            ok           
                                      35  |                   ok                   |     39.12      |            ok           
                                      36  |                   ok                   |     39.88      |            ok           
                                      37  |                   ok                   |     39.55      |            ok           
                                      38  |                   ok                   |     38.28      |            ok           
                                      39  |                   ok                   |     39.21      |            ok           
                                      40  |                   ok                   |     39.55      |            ok           
                                      41  |                   ok                   |     38.15      |            ok           
                                      42  |                   ok                   |     38.46      |            ok           
                                      43  |                   ok                   |     38.50      |            ok           
                                      44  |                   ok                   |     39.24      |            ok           
                                      45  |                   ok                   |     39.05      |            ok           
                                      46  |                   ok                   |     39.64      |            ok           
                                      47  |                   ok                   |     39.05      |            ok           
                                      48  |                   ok                   |     39.55      |            ok           
                                      49  |                   ok                   |     38.99      |            ok           
                                      50  |                   ok                   |     38.98      |            ok           
                                      51  |                   ok                   |     37.86      |            ok           
                                      52  |                   ok                   |     39.44      |            ok           
                                      53  |                   ok                   |     39.90      |            ok           
                                      54  |                   ok                   |     39.64      |            ok           
                                      55  |                   ok                   |     40.21      |            ok           
                                      56  |                   ok                   |     39.84      |            ok           
                                      57  |                   ok                   |     40.28      |            ok           
                                      58  |                   ok                   |     40.60      |            ok           
                                      59  |                   ok                   |     39.33      |            ok           
                                      60  |                   ok                   |     35.01      |            ok           
                                      61  |                   ok                   |     40.56      |            ok           
                                      62  |                   ok                   |     39.85      |            ok           
                                      63  |                   ok                   |     39.12      |            ok           
                                      64  |                   ok                   |     40.14      |            ok           
                                      65  |                   ok                   |     39.19      |            ok           
                                      66  |                   ok                   |     39.41      |            ok           
                                      67  |                   ok                   |     39.36      |            ok           
                                      68  |                   ok                   |     38.37      |            ok           
                                      69  |                   ok                   |     38.43      |            ok           
                                      70  |                   ok                   |     39.00      |            ok           
                                      71  |                   ok                   |     38.87      |            ok           
                                      72  |                   ok                   |     38.43      |            ok           
                                      73  |                   ok                   |     39.46      |            ok           
                                      74  |                   ok                   |     38.17      |            ok           
                                      75  |                   ok                   |     39.24      |            ok           
                                      76  |                   ok                   |     39.03      |            ok           
                                      77  |                   ok                   |     39.01      |            ok           
                                      78  |                   ok                   |     39.22      |            ok           
                                      79  |                   ok                   |     36.97      |            ok           
                                      80  |                   ok                   |     37.75      |            ok           
                                      81  |                   ok                   |     39.70      |            ok           
                                      82  |                   ok                   |     39.39      |            ok           
                                      83  |                   ok                   |     39.58      |            ok           
                                      84  |                   ok                   |     39.24      |            ok           
                                      85  |                   ok                   |     39.40      |            ok           
                                      86  |                   ok                   |     37.53      |            ok           
                                      87  |                   ok                   |     32.78      |            ok           
                                      88  |                   ok                   |     35.11      |            ok           
                                      89  |                   ok                   |     31.46      |            ok           
                                      90  |                   ok                   |     34.63      |            ok           
                                      91  |                   ok                   |     34.72      |            ok           
                                      92  |                   ok                   |     35.40      |            ok           
                                      93  |                   ok                   |     34.99      |            ok           
                                      94  |                   ok                   |     35.08      |            ok           
                                      95  |                   ok                   |     34.97      |            ok           
                                      96  |                   ok                   |     34.82      |            ok           
                                      97  |                   ok                   |     34.84      |            ok           
                                      98  |                   ok                   |     34.84      |            ok           
                                      99  |                   ok                   |     34.80      |            ok           
                                      100 |                   ok                   |     34.75      |            ok           
                                      

                                      More tests will follow.

                                      Cheers
                                      Claudia

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
                                      • pnedevP
                                        pnedev
                                        last edited by

                                        [@Claudia-Frank ]

                                        Hi Claudia,

                                        Your test approach seems very good and should catch most functional issues pretty well.
                                        I don’t think covering encoding menu is necessary. The only potential thing missing is macro recording/execution but that cannot be automated.
                                        I suppose you are testing with the pull request binary (https://notepad-plus-plus.org/community/topic/13302/fix-corrupted-txt-file-null/53), right? It should fix all potential backup concurrency issues so far.

                                        My main concern actually is the “power loss -> data loss” issue but that is impossible to reproduce and is beyond our control.

                                        Thank you very much for testing the changes.

                                        BR

                                        Claudia FrankC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                        • Claudia FrankC
                                          Claudia Frank @pnedev
                                          last edited by

                                          @pnedev

                                          I suppose you are testing with the pull request binary

                                          correct, and the x64 binary from the artifacts from here.

                                          Concerning your concerns :-), for sure we can’t cover every kind of situation but
                                          I’m thinking of

                                          Powerloss - VirtualBox/Qemu shutdown
                                          Dataloss - kill the process when accessing real and backup file.
                                          Macros - missed that totally - maybe some kind of sendkeys solution (!?) - need to think of.

                                          One, side question, if allowed - testing 64bit npp seems to run ~30% faster than 32bit.
                                          Any idea why this might be? I mean, I expected it to be faster but ~30% ??
                                          As far as I can tell I didn’t hit any limit when testing the 32bit npp.

                                          And most important - THANK YOU for that fix - even haven’t tested all functions yet,
                                          it looks very promising.

                                          Cheers
                                          Claudia

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                          • pnedevP
                                            pnedev
                                            last edited by

                                            Hi @Claudia-Frank ,

                                            Powerloss - VirtualBox/Qemu shutdown
                                            Dataloss - kill the process when accessing real and backup file.

                                            That’s worth trying. I don’t know about the macros, I have never used them actually.

                                            Any idea why this might be?

                                            I suppose it might be connected to the memory buffers allocations in Scintilla and in general. Perhaps the pre-allocated memory chunk size is bigger in 64 bit which leads to less buffer re-allocations and data moves making things a lot more optimal.

                                            Thanks,
                                            BR

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
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