Arch Linux

Ganitzsh

Member

Registered: 2013-05-10

Posts: 7

File operation progress bar

Hi,

I've been wondering for years now, why is the progress bar from file operations (copy/paste on USB devices/disk...) always wrong on file managers?
Typical situation is: progress bar to it's maximum and "0 seconds remaining" for few seconds/minutes.
Google didn't seem to know, or maybe I didn't use the good keywords and if so, excuse me.

Respectfully,
Ganitzsh

x33a

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-08-15

Posts: 4,587

Re: File operation progress bar

It's a rather vague question since different file managers will probably behave differently. Anyway, one reason for this could be that the file system buffers are being flushed.

Also, in my experience it is more likely to occur when writing to slower media, like pen drives.

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: File operation progress bar

I think many small files will take longer to copy / move than a small number of bigger files. If the progress is estimated based on the total size, it can be off because of that.

OT:

Also, in my experience it is more likely to occur when writing to slower media, like pen drives.

I remember times when 3.5" floppy was considered a fast medium <sniff>

Steef435

Member

Registered: 2013-08-29

Posts: 577

Website

Re: File operation progress bar

I think that the estimations by Thunar are pretty good. I remember the estimated times on Windows XP, it would say six hours when it would take ten minutes and 45 minutes when it would take six hours.

In addition to what Karol said, I think it also depends a lot on the other things that are going on while the operation is running, or that it's based on the current transfer speed rather than the expected average transfer speed, or the other way around.

I guess it would be interesting to open up some file managers and take a look at what logic they're applying.

EDIT: Allegedly "to screw open" doesn't mean to open up by removing the screws. Learn something new every day ^^

Last edited by Steef435 (2015-01-25 23:12:31)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,534

Website

Re: File operation progress bar

http://xkcd.com/612/

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clfarron4

Member

From: London, UK

Registered: 2013-06-28

Posts: 2,163

Website

Re: File operation progress bar

http://xkcd.com/612/

I think it's better with more recent versions of Windows, but it can still apply.

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Hmm... It'd be quite interesting to follow up @Steel345's point by looking at either the code used or asking the developers of the respective file managers.

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easysid

Member

From: India

Registered: 2013-01-01

Posts: 256

Re: File operation progress bar

I use Thunar, and this issue crops up only when I am writing to pen drives (usb 2.0). Local disk copy progress are often correct, but copying large files to pendrives shows this behaviour where the progress bar moves to near complete quite quickly and then stays there while actual copy takes place.

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