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Bug 141166 - "generic error" when attempting to copying files over ssh / sftp with insufficient permissions
"generic error" when attempting to copying files over ssh / sftp with insuffi...
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: nautilus
Classification: Core
Component: File and Folder Operations
2.8.x
Other Linux
: Normal normal
: ---
Assigned To: Nautilus Maintainers
Nautilus Maintainers
: 155860 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2004-04-26 21:13 UTC by Jerome Haltom
Modified: 2008-06-25 07:46 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: 2.9/2.10



Description Jerome Haltom 2004-04-26 21:13:09 UTC
Browse to an sftp:// (others?) url that you do not have permission to create a
directory in. Attempt to create a directory:

title: "Error creating directory."
message: "Error 'Generic error' creating directory."


I think we can all agree this error message is utterly useless.
Comment 1 Andrew Sobala 2004-08-28 18:04:45 UTC
I get "Error: Operation not permitted" error in 2.7.x. Does this still happen?
Comment 2 Jerome Haltom 2004-08-28 18:25:09 UTC
Correct. In 2.7 this appears to have been changed as you described. The error
message however still "feels" like it's been pulled through two layers of API in
order to reach the screen.

I would more likely suggest something easy to read and process for a human being:

"Could not create a new folder. You do not have permission to create a new
folder here."

I won't however give any suggestions about HOW to get that error message to say
that. ;)
Comment 3 Matthew Gatto 2004-11-06 09:40:48 UTC
*** Bug 155860 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 4 Michael Terry 2005-03-07 20:46:55 UTC
I did a little digging into this.  Nautilus has support for those nice error
messages (handle_new_{folder,file}_vfs_error() in
libnautilus-private/nautilus-file-operations.c), but depends on gnome-vfs to
tell it the correct error.  Over sftp, it looks to me like CVS HEAD gives an
"Operation not supported" for creating folders and a "Generic error" for
creating files.

Gnome-vfs's sftp module is pretty dang vague because it is built on top of
openssl, which is also vague.  In this instance, it seems that openssl returns
"Operation not supported" for the folder, and an error value that the sftp
module doesn't catch for the file (which is why we end up seeing "Generic error").

Also, nautilus watches for GNOME_VFS_ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED to be returned, but it
looks like if gnome-vfs-sftp ever would return a permissions error, it would be
GNOME_VFS_ERROR_NOT_PERMITTED.  So, either nautilus needs to watch for both or
gnome-vfs-sftp should return ACCESS_DENIED.
Comment 5 Sebastien Bacher 2008-06-25 07:46:10 UTC
the new nautilus using gvfs displays a correct message about the issue, closing the bug