ftp error, unable to canonicalize the path

[rowbearto]

I have an issue that can be reproduced as follows:

1) Using ftp tool window, sftp (secure ftp) into a linux machine that has a directory /usr
2) In the edit box of the ftp tool window, try to type /usr
3) As soon as the "u" is typed, an error message pops up: "Cannot stat '/u': Unable to canonicalize the path"

EDIT: I corrected 'ftp' in step 1 to 'sftp'

Thanks for taking a look,
Rob

[Rodney]

I can't reproduce it on my Windows 7 box, sftp'ed into an Ubuntu box, but it sounds like the combobox is firing as you type the path. It should only fire when you pick an entry or hit ENTER.

++rodney

[rowbearto]

I just tried again after closing and restarting SE, and the issue goes away - temporarily.

But if I use the ftp dialog extensively, it eventually gets into this state.

I have not been able to find a repeatable set of steps, but I can reproduce it by doing the following types of things many times:

1) type "/usr" into combo box, press ENTER
2) Click once on a file in the directory window of ftp. Press <ENTER> on a few directories, press backspace a few times to go to parent, use up/down arrows, press <ENTER> on some files to open them.
3) type my home dir "/home/<username>" and press <ENTER>
4) start typing something into the combo, then switch to another application (like Chrome), then switch back.
5) Open a file from the ftp and type a few chars into its editor window, but don't save it.
6) Open/close a workspace while a few characters are typed into the combo box.

After doing lots of repetitions of the above in random orders, eventually the ftp combo box gets into this state where it starts firing with each character you type into it.

[Dan]

When this happens, can you drop down the combo box and see what is in it?  Is there a "/u" entry?  This shouldn't happen, but it is one way I could see this behavior occurring.

[rowbearto]

Next time it happens, I will try it. Haven't used it much today. Did a little bit of messing around but can't get it back into that state. I'll try more later.

I do remember that once it is in this state, if I just type '/' without the 'u', and without pressing ENTER, it would bring me into the root directory.

There is another issue I've seen with this combo box. When trying to reproduce the /u error, it sometimes got into a state where it would add extra spaces. For example, if I typed in my home directory "/home/rbresali" and pressed ENTER, I would get an error that it could not find it because extra spaces were added, it said it could not find "/home/rbresali     " (notice I added some extra spaces). When this happened, I would make sure I did not type any extra spaces into the combo box, yet it still thought there were extra spaces there.

[rowbearto]

I just got it into the condition.

When it is in this state, just typing '/' would go to the root dir. And /u gave the error.

Then I clicked the down arrow in the combo box to check if /u was there, and it was not.

But clicking the down arrow seemed to clear the condition, and it wasn't behaving like that anymore after I did that.

[rowbearto]

when I get into this condition, typing any letter after the / yields the error, /s, /t, any of these.

The steps to reproduce the issue seem inconsistent.

Lately, I just tried typing "/u<ENTER>", pressing ENTER on the error message, clicking the mouse to highlight the error box, and pressing "/u<ENTER>" again. I repeated this around 5 times. Then I typed "/" in the combo box, pressed <ENTER>, and repeatedly hit "/u<ENTER>" a bunch of times. Then I single clicked in the window that showed the contents of the root dir "/" and typed "sbin<ENTER>" to go into sbin directory. Then a few more "/u" into the combo box (I may have switched away from SE app during this time), and it got into this state.