Re: [help-GIFT] gift-add-collection.pl: Couldn't open gift-config.mrml

[risc]

On Fri, Nov 09, 2007 at 11:15:43AM +1100, raf wrote:
> hi,
> 
> i'm having trouble with gnuift. it's the same trouble that
> someone had and mentioned on this list three years ago
> but that thread morphed into a discussion about recompiling
> gift and the problem wasn't solved as far as i could tell.
> i was hoping i might have more luck :)
> 
> this is on ubuntu-7.04, linux-2.6.20-15-generic,
> and gnuift-0.1.14-6.2 (the package that installs on ubuntu)
> 
> i ran:
> 
>  $ gift-add-collection.pl /void/photos
> 
> which, after much ugly but promising output, said:
> 
>  The collection frequency is: inf
>  gift-generate-inverted-file: CInvertedFileChunk.cc:117: bool
>  CInvertedFileChunk::writeBinary(std::ostream&, TID, size_t)
>  const: Assertion `!"collection frequency out of range"'
>  failed.
> 
>  PROGRESS: 99%
> 
> 
>  Copying /home/raf/gift-config.mrml to
>  /home/raf/gift-config.mrml-old
> 
>  Couldn't open /home/raf/gift-config.mrml:
>  No such file or directory at
>  /usr/X11R6/bin/gift-add-collection.pl line 585
> 
> everything is owned by me.
> my home directory (/home/raf) does exist.
> 
> could the non-existence of the gift-config.mrml file
> be related to the "collection frequency out of range" error?
> 
> why would the collection frequency be inf?
> does that mean infinite?
> does that just mean that it's the first time
> the collection has been scanned?
> if so, how that can cause it to fail?
> there has to be a first time.
> if it can't work the first time,
> then, by induction, it can never work :)
> 
> what can i do about this?
> 
> why would it attempt to create a gift-config.mrml file
> and then immediately copy it to gift-config.mrml-old?
> there's nothing old about it if it just created it?
> or is it just assuming that there is an old one
> and that it needs to back it up? if so, that assumption
> is always false the first time it is run.
> 
> i have tried to run it again with the same results.
> 
> i tried creating an empty /home/raf/gift-config.mrml
> just to get past the copy and then received this error:
> 
> Ran out of memory for input buffer at
> /usr/lib/perl5/XML/Parser/Expat.pm line 469, <LOCALELIST>
> line 265.
> 
> which is ridiculous since i have 2GB of ram and 20GB of swap.
> what can i do?
> 
> cheers,
> raf
> 

raf, may i reccomend trying one of the newer versions of GIFT?

theres presently a 0.1.16 on alpha.gnu.org.

its possible things broke down into a discussion on compiling,
due to a bug in the earlier version.

if that dosent work, i'll send you a default gift-config.mrml.

and if that dosent work, i'll reproduce your error locally, and
try to work through it myself.

> p.s. when i first ran gift, it crashed. that's terrible.
> the debian manpage contained credits but no information
> so only a web search helped me to discover that i needed
> to run gift-add-collection.pl first. i later found this
> crucial information in gift-guide.txt in the gnuift-doc
> package so it's my own fault i suppose but, like most
> people, i expect manpages to exist and to explain how to
> use software.
> 
> if nobody wants to write real manpages, please at least
> convert gift-guide.txt to man format and install that.
> 
> failing that, at least stop gift from crashing when it's
> not initialised. it would be much nicer if there was a
> warning then and there that refers to the need to initialise
> and a mention of gift-add-collection.pl.
> 
> p.p.s. i'm sorry if i sound like a whingy bastard. it's just
> that i've been so thoroughly thwarted by software that i
> have such high hopes for. when i heard of google's picasa, i
> assumed that it let you search for images based on analysis
> of the images themselves rather than pre-existing textual
> attributes. when i found out that it was nowhere near as
> clever as that, i was disappointed but then discovered
> gnuift by chance. it sounds utterly brilliant and i am eager
> to see it in action. then i was disappointed again because
> it's not working for me. so forgive my whinging. i'm really
> just trying to make things better/easier for everyone by
> pointing out the need to make the mundane, less brilliant
> parts of the software work.
> 
> 
*nodnod*. I'm convinced. :)

Julia Longtin <address@hidden>