[Users] Views keep getting changed on exit ?

[Dustin Miller]

On Mon, 7 Nov 2022 15:33:59 +0600
Dustin Miller <dustbiz at gmail.com> wrote:

> One thing I had forgotten about was that this issue only shows up for
> me when I exit Claws (CM) with the message view hidden. I thought I
> would look into this in more detail for two of my systems and include
> some information here in case it is helpful for anyone to understand
> what may be going on.
> 
DM: Does anyone have any ideas about one or more potentially useful
tools for trying to find out what CM and/or my system are doing
'behind-the-scenes' when CM is starting, running, and exiting? Would
compiling CM w/ debug symbols and running it with gdb be an option?
Something else? I've been looking at my system logs, as well as poking
around the internet for ideas, but haven't found anything that seems
useful. There is the GTK interactive debugger that can be used for a
specific GTK program, but I'm not sure that would be useful here. Is
there any type of tool / log that would specifically focus on all GTK3
events / activities on the system, regardless of the application? I
thought that type of thing might be helpful in showing any interactions
or conflicts between CM and the distro / DE / theme / etc. ---Dustin
> 
> The systems are:
> 
> * Linux Mint 20.3, Xfce, Greybird-Pro theme, CM v4.1.0 ("LM")
> * Linux Mint Debian Edition 5, Xfce, Greybird-Pro theme, CM v4.1.1
>   ("LMDE")
> 
> For the relevant settings from the '.claws-mail/clawsrc' file, I will
> use the following key:
> 
> S = summaryview_height value. M = messageview_height value. On/Off =
> messageview_visible value.
> 
> * 1. If message view (MV) is off when CM starts, it doesn't matter
> what the S and M values are; when MV is shown it ignores the values in
>   clawsrc and applies 'default' (i.e. always the same) values of S =
> 95 and M = 555 (LM), 551 (LMDE). If no other changes are made, these
>   values are then written to clawsrc when CM closes.
> 
> * 2. If MV is on when CM starts, then whatever S and M values are in
>   clawsrc will be honored throughout that entire session.
> 
> * 3. So the reason why the issue only appeared for me when I closed CM
>   w/ MV hidden is not because my changes had not been saved as S = 170
>   and M = 480 (LM), 476 (LMDE) (i.e. my current preference), but
> rather because MV was set to 'off' in clawsrc. If I manually changed
> this setting to 'on' before starting CM again, then I have the same
> result as in #2 above with my desired values being correctly applied.
> 
> So it seems like the trouble-point for my case is when the MV is
> manually shown (in the context of CM starting with it hidden). Under
> our current assumption that this is not a CM bug, then at the point
> when I instruct CM to show the message view, it appears that something
> outside of CM is forcing CM to ignore the values in clawsrc and use a
> different but consistent set of values, which CM will then remember
> throughout the session and write to clawsrc on exit unless I change
> them.
> 
> I don't really know what to make of this, but I thought I'd post these
> extra details here on the list in case others have any ideas on how to
> move forward with troubleshooting this. Meanwhile I'll keep trying to
> learn more about how GTK3 is used by various software as they interact
> with each other.
> 
> Cheers,
> Dustin