this report has been filed here:

https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gthumb/+bug/496603

"It took a long time to track down what was creating these folders and files, but they are created when certain files are viewed with gThumb.
I.E. If an image has any IPTC data, gThumb makes a hidden folder and xml file.

Normally I have gThumb set to show Thumbnails and File Name. “Comments” are not selected.

For the sample image:
Selecting File > Properties > Photo Data (EXIF) tab it says:

Software: Adobe Photoshop 7
Date Time: 2002:12:08 etc.
Image Description: <Long text>

This same long text appears on the Comment tab.

Using mapivi to view all the embedded data, it shows:

IPTC : <Long text>
Comments:
EXIF: 2002:12:08 etc.

Although I have many files with data in the field mapavi refers to as comments, this shows up no where in the image properties with gThumb.
gThumb and mapavi refer to different fields with the name comment(s)

The real problem:
Every time gThumb displays a file with data in the IPTC / Comment field, it creates a .comment folder and a xml file for each image.
If all of my images had data in the IPTC field, I would end up with thousands of .comment folders and over half a million xml files.

Suggestions / Requests:
When the comment field is not set to show comments, gThumb should not make an xml file. That would solve most of the problem.
Next, if gThumb absolutely has to create these xml files in order to display the data, they should either be deleted when done, centrally located like the thumbnails are, or centrally located in an Sqlite file.

With as many images as I have, I have been working on a script to add comments and keywords to the files. I think you can see that as of now, doing that would then add over half a million xml files to my system. Not a good idea........

In the mean time, is there some special gconf setting I can use to completely suppress making the xml files?
Can some one point me to the section of the gThumb source code to rip out or any compiler switch so that I can recompile without this feature?

Sample image that always makes the .comments folder and xml file attached"

image:

http://launchpadlibrarian.net/36778211/Mil-Guns-120.jpg