Crash using GN Editor or Assetbrowser when "datafiles/assets" folder is not there #104857

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opened 2023-02-17 10:04:45 +01:00 by Philipp Oeser · 12 comments

Philipp Oeser commented

2023-02-17 10:04:45 +01:00

Member

System Information
Operating system: Linux-6.1.6-200.fc37.x86_64-x86_64-with-glibc2.36 64 Bits
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU/PCIe/SSE2 NVIDIA Corporation 4.5.0 NVIDIA 525.78.01

Blender Version
Broken: version: 3.6.0 Alpha, branch: main (modified), commit date: 2023-02-17 08:38, hash: 5de9a5dea5db
Worked: (newest version of Blender that worked as expected)

Short description of error
Since b3fb73f325, we should have a datafiles/assets folder.
When it is not there (renamed/deleted, or contains wrong stuff), blender crashes when trying to add nodes in the Geometry Nodes Editor and also just switching to the Asset Browser

Exact steps for others to reproduce the error

(temporarily) rename datafiles/assets to datafiles/assets_
switch any editor to the Asset Browser
crash

crash is in essentials_directory_path, giving what(): basic_string: construction from null is not valid

**System Information** Operating system: Linux-6.1.6-200.fc37.x86_64-x86_64-with-glibc2.36 64 Bits Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU/PCIe/SSE2 NVIDIA Corporation 4.5.0 NVIDIA 525.78.01 **Blender Version** Broken: version: 3.6.0 Alpha, branch: main (modified), commit date: 2023-02-17 08:38, hash: `5de9a5dea5db` Worked: (newest version of Blender that worked as expected) **Short description of error** Since b3fb73f32545, we should have a `datafiles/assets` folder. When it is not there (renamed/deleted, or contains wrong stuff), blender crashes when trying to add nodes in the Geometry Nodes Editor and also just switching to the Asset Browser **Exact steps for others to reproduce the error** - (temporarily) rename `datafiles/assets` to `datafiles/assets_` - switch any editor to the Asset Browser - crash crash is in `essentials_directory_path`, giving `what(): basic_string: construction from null is not valid`

Philipp Oeser added the

labels 2023-02-17 10:04:45 +01:00

Philipp Oeser commented

2023-02-17 10:05:31 +01:00

Author

Member

CC @JacquesLucke
CC @HooglyBoogly

CC @JacquesLucke CC @HooglyBoogly

Philipp Oeser added

Pipeline, Assets & IO

Nodes & Physics

and removed

labels 2023-02-17 10:06:30 +01:00

Philipp Oeser changed title from ~~Crash using GN Editor or Assetbrowser when "datafiles/assets" foder is not there~~ to Crash using GN Editor or Assetbrowser when "datafiles/assets" folder is not there

2023-02-17 10:06:48 +01:00

Dalai Felinto commented

2023-02-17 11:14:31 +01:00

Owner

Honestly I don't mind if it crashes. Removing/renaming this folder is like deleting a DLL and expect Blender to keep working.

I even rather have a Blender that is not working, then one where some function will randomly fail because the expected Node Group won't be there (e.g., the Quick Fur operator).

Honestly I don't mind if it crashes. Removing/renaming this folder is like deleting a DLL and expect Blender to keep working. I even rather have a Blender that is not working, then one where some function will randomly fail because the expected Node Group won't be there (e.g., the Quick Fur operator).

Philipp Oeser commented

2023-02-17 11:27:58 +01:00

Author

Member

Fine to close it (since I have resolved my pain now 🙂), was just raising awareness
My situation might have been special (local build, for some reason this already existing assets folder, ...)

But at least it wasnt something I was actively doing, just running into by accident
(so others might as well)
But again: closing is fine, we have the report as reference now for others to find 🙂

Fine to close it (since I have resolved my pain now 🙂), was just raising awareness My situation might have been special (local build, for some reason this already existing assets folder, ...) But at least it wasnt something I was actively doing, just running into by accident (so others might as well) But again: closing is fine, we have the report as reference now for others to find 🙂

Jacques Lucke commented

2023-02-17 13:01:51 +01:00

Member

Generally seems reasonable to avoid crashing in this case. I hoped that just using BKE_appdir_folder_id_user_notest in essentials_directory_path would fix, but unfortunately that function does not support to be called with BLENDER_DATAFILES (yet?).
It does seems possible but not entirely trivial to add it, because multiple paths are checked to find the correct folder, skipping the test doesn't seem to make sense

Alternatively, we could try to handle the case essentials_directory_path returns an empty result, but that currently breaks elsewhere because an asset library must have a non-empty root path.

Generally seems reasonable to avoid crashing in this case. I hoped that just using `BKE_appdir_folder_id_user_notest` in `essentials_directory_path` would fix, but unfortunately that function does not support to be called with `BLENDER_DATAFILES` (yet?). It does seems possible but not entirely trivial to add it, because multiple paths are checked to find the correct folder, skipping the test doesn't seem to make sense Alternatively, we could try to handle the case `essentials_directory_path` returns an empty result, but that currently breaks elsewhere because an asset library must have a non-empty root path.

Jacques Lucke referenced this issue

2023-02-21 16:03:17 +01:00

Fix asset browser crashing Blender when the assets directory is missing #105029

Sybren A. Stüvel commented

2023-02-21 17:37:22 +01:00

Member

Honestly I don't mind if it crashes. Removing/renaming this folder is like deleting a DLL and expect Blender to keep working.

This IMO is not a nice attitude. I was just using Blender from the main branch and couldn't use the asset browser.

I even rather have a Blender that is not working, then one where some function will randomly fail because the expected Node Group won't be there (e.g., the Quick Fur operator).

Then there should be a nice message explaining the situation, including how to resolve it. How is a crash acceptable?

> Honestly I don't mind if it crashes. Removing/renaming this folder is like deleting a DLL and expect Blender to keep working. This IMO is not a nice attitude. I was just using Blender from the `main` branch and couldn't use the asset browser. > I even rather have a Blender that is not working, then one where some function will randomly fail because the expected Node Group won't be there (e.g., the Quick Fur operator). Then there should be a nice message explaining the situation, including how to resolve it. How is a crash acceptable?

Ray molenkamp commented

2023-02-21 17:59:21 +01:00

Member

I'm with @dr.sybren here, when you delete a dll, you'll get a popup about abcd.dll not being found, just flat out crashing, the user potentially losing work and justifying it with "well the user did something wrong, why shouldn't we crash without telling anyone why!?" seems a little harsh, pretty sure there are other, perhaps better ways to communicate with a user?

I'm with @dr.sybren here, when you delete a dll, you'll get a popup about abcd.dll not being found, just flat out crashing, the user potentially losing work and justifying it with "well the user did something wrong, why shouldn't we crash without telling anyone why!?" seems a little harsh, pretty sure there are other, perhaps better ways to communicate with a user?

Philipp Oeser referenced this issue

2023-02-22 09:58:07 +01:00

Crash when click on search in shader node add menu #105049

Dalai Felinto commented

2023-02-23 10:27:35 +01:00

Owner

I think the problem can be split in two ways:

People who deliberately want to build a light Blender (e.g., make lite) should be able to do so with no problems.
People who were just building a regular build who didn't want a lighter Blender should get a build error.

And in my opinion if in the second scenario the folder is still not there for some reason, Blender could be prevented from launch throwing the error at users.

I haven't checked what we do for the other datafiles but I expect to be something similar. If not we can probably copy what is done there.

I think the problem can be split in two ways: 1. People who deliberately want to build a light Blender (e.g., make lite) should be able to do so with no problems. 2. People who were just building a regular build who didn't want a lighter Blender should get a build error. And in my opinion if in the second scenario the folder is still not there for some reason, Blender could be prevented from launch throwing the error at users. I haven't checked what we do for the other datafiles but I expect to be something similar. If not we can probably copy what is done there.

Dalai Felinto commented

2023-02-23 10:32:07 +01:00

Owner

Sybren (on chat) was suggesting a 3rd option:

"3. whenever these files are missing just show that things are missing and functionality is limited."

If we have a good way to show those warnings I think that should be fine. I'm a bit wary of warnings that may be easily dismissable. But this is an unlikely scenario anyways so I'm fine with whatever solution people prefer.

Sybren (on chat) was suggesting a 3rd option: "3. whenever these files are missing just show that things are missing and functionality is limited." If we have a good way to show those warnings I think that should be fine. I'm a bit wary of warnings that may be easily dismissable. But this is an unlikely scenario anyways so I'm fine with whatever solution people prefer.

Sybren A. Stüvel commented

2023-02-23 10:42:37 +01:00

Member

People who deliberately want to build a light Blender (e.g., make lite) should be able to do so with no problems.

That's a statement that nobody can disagree with. Of course a standard make invocation should result in a properly functional Blender.

People who were just building a regular build who didn't want a lighter Blender should get a build error.

This is a dangerous one. The first point was objective, about people running a specific command. Now you're looking at people's desires, and that's not so easy to put into a list of just two items.

Before b3fb73f325 you could run ninja install occasionally, and not doing so either just works (because it has been run previously), or produces clear errors (Python not found, USD exporter that cannot write to USD files because it doesn't have the JSON files to configure it, etc.).

Technically it's not possible to get a build error because the order is:

Build Blender (ninja)
Install the built files (ninja install)

It's that 2nd step that puts the files in the right place, and thus the check whether the files are there or not can only be done after that. And that would boil down to checking that Ninja actually works -- I don't think the install step is the right place to do so.

And in my opinion if in the second scenario the folder is still not there for some reason, Blender could be prevented from launch throwing the error at users.

That I think is already way better than blatantly crashing with a cryptic error message.

I haven't checked what we do for the other datafiles but I expect to be something similar. If not we can probably copy what is done there.

There we employ graceful degradation. It's a well-known way to aid in stability of the software. Basically the opposite of "it's fine to crash if files are missing".

Also from a product perspective I think it's desirable to make Blender as fault-tolerant as feasible. Especially if it aligns with developer needs & productivity (less steps to perform when building Blender, more clarity when expectations are not met).

> 1. People who deliberately want to build a light Blender (e.g., make lite) should be able to do so with no problems. That's a statement that nobody can disagree with. Of course a standard `make` invocation should result in a properly functional Blender. > 2. People who were just building a regular build who didn't want a lighter Blender should get a build error. This is a dangerous one. The first point was objective, about people running a specific command. Now you're looking at people's desires, and that's not so easy to put into a list of just two items. Before b3fb73f32545 you could run `ninja install` occasionally, and not doing so either just works (because it has been run previously), or produces clear errors (Python not found, USD exporter that cannot write to USD files because it doesn't have the JSON files to configure it, etc.). Technically it's not possible to get a build error because the order is: 1. Build Blender (`ninja`) 2. Install the built files (`ninja install`) It's that 2nd step that puts the files in the right place, and thus the check whether the files are there or not can only be done after that. And that would boil down to checking that Ninja actually works -- I don't think the install step is the right place to do so. > And in my opinion if in the second scenario the folder is still not there for some reason, Blender could be prevented from launch throwing the error at users. That I think is already way better than blatantly crashing with a cryptic error message. > I haven't checked what we do for the other datafiles but I expect to be something similar. If not we can probably copy what is done there. There we employ [graceful degradation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fault_tolerance). It's a well-known way to aid in stability of the software. Basically the opposite of "it's fine to crash if files are missing". Also from a product perspective I think it's desirable to make Blender as fault-tolerant as feasible. Especially if it aligns with developer needs & productivity (less steps to perform when building Blender, more clarity when expectations are not met).

Dalai Felinto commented

2023-02-23 11:04:23 +01:00

Owner

For reference, those are some of the current errors we get for missing datafiles:

BLT_lang_init: 'locale' data path for translations not found, continuing
Color management: using fallback mode for management

I think this is a good start point, and we can even explore more robust error-handling. For example a fake asset fallback that could actually inform the users of what is missing right where they expect to find the actual assets - as just suggested by Sybren IRL.

For reference, those are some of the current errors we get for missing datafiles: * BLT_lang_init: 'locale' data path for translations not found, continuing * Color management: using fallback mode for management I think this is a good start point, and we can even explore more robust error-handling. For example a fake asset fallback that could actually inform the users of what is missing right where they expect to find the actual assets - as just suggested by Sybren IRL.

Vladimir commented

2023-02-23 11:07:39 +01:00

At least add a message to stdout/stderr about the error on Blender crash!

At least add a message to stdout/stderr about the error on Blender crash!

Philipp Oeser referenced this issue

2023-02-23 13:36:24 +01:00

Crash when adding nodegroup asset in node editor (when large Asset Libraries are present) #104305

Philipp Oeser commented

2023-02-23 15:33:15 +01:00

Author

Member

I got another crash which is caused by b3fb73f325, see #104305.
The cause is different though (this includes having an older Asset Library enabled in preferences -- still trying to figure out the exact details there)

I got another crash which is caused by b3fb73f325, see #104305. The cause is different though (this includes having an older Asset Library enabled in preferences -- still trying to figure out the exact details there)

Jacques Lucke referenced this issue from a commit

2023-02-27 14:02:18 +01:00

Fix #104857: crash when datafiles/assets folder does not exist

Jacques Lucke closed this issue

2023-02-27 14:03:10 +01:00

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