This happens when the number of indexed search results is less than the
size of the directory "chunks" that gnome-vfs returns to nautilus.
Gnome vfs waits for the slow backup search to return enough results to 
complete a "chunk". At the end user level, this can mean waiting a minute or
more for search results, and can make the feature unusable.

Pavel had suggested that this could be solved by forcing gnomevfs to return
chunks by time interval when waiting, and although this sounds like a good
approach for the long term, I think something simpler should be done in the
short term to make the feature usable.

Some ideas, if we want to confront this problem in the short term:
1. (completely minimal) turn "backup searching" off by default so that the
problem is less visible
2. force gnome vfs to return results more often by reducing the chunk size
3. make search directories return extra (duplicate) results every so
often instead of completely blocking.  This will ensure that nautilus gets
back information more quickly, but I have no idea how gnome-vfs currently
handles getting duplicate files in a directory, and the effect might be really 
bad.



------- Additional Comments From don@eazel.com 2001-02-15 21:43:03 ----

The solution to this problem for 1.0 is to get rid of the "backup search"
feature.

Defering this for now ...




------- Bug moved to this database by unknown@bugzilla.gnome.org 2001-09-09 20:59 -------