4coder»Forums
19 posts
Red exclamation mark !
Edited by simonWasHere on
Hi,

Since upgrading to version 4.0.28 from 4.0.20 I am often seeing a red exclamation mark in the title bar next to the file name.

Saw the same thing very occasionally in the past (maybe when the file was changed by another program while open in 4coder?) but now I am seeing it very often immediately on opening a file.

Any ideas why?

thanks,

Simon
Allen Webster
476 posts / 6 projects
Heyo
Red exclamation mark !
Edited by Allen Webster on
I don't know, but that's a pretty serious problem. The ! indicates that the file was changed outside of 4coder but it is not 100% reliable.

I will need more information. If you're not comfortable sharing some of this here you can send it to [email protected]:

1. What OS?
2. What source control are you using?
3. Are any of these files on a shared/networked drive?

I will have more followups depending on your answers to these.

P.S. this is a pretty serious issue. As long as it remains unresolved things like "save all buffers" commands will fail. So I recommend returning to 4.0.20 as your main editor if you start having any issues.
19 posts
Red exclamation mark !
OS is Windows 10 Home, version 1803 build 17134.165 fully updated.
Using git for source control, through the command line using Cmder.
Everything is on a local drive but it is a fake drive created with subst pointing to a folder on the real drive.

It seems to be the case that the exclamation mark is shown the first time the file is opened, but if I close it and reopen it then it is fine. Even if I close 4coder then reopen it the files previously opened will open fine but ones I didn't previously open show the exclamation mark. Then if I reboot the computer it is all reset and it will happen to all the files the first time they are opened. I know that sounds weird and can't 100 percent be sure about it but that is what it looks like, will do some more testing.

19 posts
Red exclamation mark !
It isn't rebooting that resets it to happen again, although something did, maybe commit/pushing to GitHub, not sure.

Right clicking and selecting properties in file explorer also 'fixes' the file somehow so it will open fine in 4coder. Could it be something to do with the file accessed time stamp?
19 posts
Red exclamation mark !
Have now seen it happen with a file on my main drive (not the subst created one) and that isn't under source control.
19 posts
Red exclamation mark !
Yes, now pretty sure it is the file access time that is the problem, because updating it with this power shell command:

$(Get-Item debug_log.c).lastaccesstime=$(Get-Date)

prevents the issue occurring in 4coder.
19 posts
Red exclamation mark !
Edited by simonWasHere on
Ok, so running:

fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1

and rebooting fixes the problem completely.

Putting it back to the default value of 2 makes the problem come back.

What the flag seems to do is delay the updating of the last access time, so my guess is that when it is set to update right away (the default) somehow 4coder is confused into thinking the file itself was updated, even though we are talking about the accessed time not the modified time.

Also, maybe it wasn't updating 4coder that caused this to start, but updating windows itself.

Edit:

If the flag is set the last access time is not updated at all, otherwise it is updated but this can be delayed for an hour, or something like that, from reading various confusing docs. If that is how it works it would fit in with what I saw if we assume that the access time updating confuses 4coder into thinking the file has changed. Perhaps the default value for this flag was changed with a windows update.
Tucker Kolpin
8 posts
Red exclamation mark !
Edited by Tucker Kolpin on
For me something similar is happening except the exclamation mark appears for a panel whenever I give the panel any input (giving the panel focus, pressing an arrow key).

In my case I imagine it is because I keep my code files in my OneDrive folder which is probably mucking with the files constantly to keep everything in sync.

I am on 4.0.25 (windows 10), maybe this variant of the problem has been fixed in later versions.
Allen Webster
476 posts / 6 projects
Heyo
Red exclamation mark !
Interesting... I'm not super sure why file dates would be related. I used to rely on them, but I thought I totally got off of it. Still if something is changing those dates when you load the file that could cause it...

Well it doesn't sound like something I can fix by just telling you to adjust something with 4coder or your setup, except maybe to use one of the fixes you've found. The next build is going to be a big one, so before it comes out I will revisit this system to put in some failsafes to prevent the ! from appearing erroneously.

Sorry for the inconvenience in the mean time.