[ardour-dev] "out of disk space" problems with beta19

[Jack O'Quin]

Paul Davis <paul at linuxaudiosystems.com> writes:

> >The file it's complaining about is probably the one I was recording to
> >when I ran out of space on the device.  I'm hoping I can edit the
> >session file somehow and recover everything else, but I don't know how
> >to do that safely without guidance.  Is there a known workaround?
> 
> 1) make a copy of the old one
> 2) edit it to remove all references to that source. you will need
>      to check the source ID as well.
> 3) test.
> 4) return to 2 as necessary

Thanks for the help.  

Finally had time to work on it again tonight.  I tried to delete all
the relevant pieces, but I keep getting this message...

  [ERROR]: Could not understand ardour file /home/joq/AUDIO/1/karaoke/valentine/valentine.ardour
  [ERROR]: Session "/home/joq/AUDIO/1/karaoke/valentine (snapshot valentine)" did not load successfully

Obviously, I'm not doing it right.  I really don't understand the
structure of that session file well enough to edit it.  Is there any
HOWTO documentation somewhere?  It looks relatively straightforward,
but I must be misunderstanding something crucial.

I've still got a backup copy on another machine of the whole session
from the night before the "out of space" disaster.  I suppose if I
replace my current smoking crater with the entire contents of that
subdirectory, I should get back to something that works and only lose
one day of work.  Fortunately, nothing terribly important happened
that day.

> the audio file itself is probably salvageable too, using an editor
> and/or other program that can be told the format of the file. i can
> explain how to do that in a separate message if you want to try that.

I was mastering at the time and recording the jamin output in a
separate stereo track when I ran out of space.  The jamin output is
not important, it is easy to recreate by reusing the same jamin
session file.

What I really don't want to lose are the vocal tracks.

> >Also, "Cleanup>Flush Wastebasket" doesn't remove the dead_sounds files
> >[bug:00705].  Is that intentional?  Is it ever safe to remove them by
> >hand?
> 
> its intentional, for now. my recommendation is to move them all out of
> the session directory, then test open the session. if it works, you
> can, if you wish, delete them. in theory, having them in "dead_sounds"
> within the session dir is a good enough test of this.

Probably an excellent idea, given the current status of this feature.

But, the command completes without any indication that it didn't work.
Yet, no space is released on the device.  Very confusing.

I'd suggest a pop-up window recommending what users should do
(i.e. quit, test reopen, if successful delete contents of
dead_sounds).  What should people do if it *doesn't* reopen
successfully?  Copy dead_sounds back to sounds?
-- 
  joq