Make saving of quit.blend on exit optional #91452

New Issue

Sybren A. Stüvel · 2021-09-16T12:52:20+02:00

Sybren A. Stüvel commented

2021-09-16 12:52:20 +02:00

Description & Scope of Problem

Every time Blender quits, when it has something on the undo stack, it will write the current "undo file" to ${TEMPDIR}/quit.blend (manual).

Saving quit.blend can take a while when the file is large. While the file is being written, Blender's UI is gray and unresponsive.

The problem is not pressing, as usually it takes considerably longer to load the files in the first place. I've asked some artists at the Blender Studio and they didn't really consider the delay when quitting Blender a practical issue. Still, it gets somewhat in the way of quickly testing things with various production blend files, so it could be seen as an issue for developers more than for artists.

Possible Solutions & Impact

Simplest solution:

As a solution we could introduce a user preference "Save Recovery File" that is enabled by default. Disabling this option would:

Avoid writing quit.blend.
Remove the "File ‣ Recover ‣ Last Session" menu item.
Remove the "Recover Last Session" button from the splash screen.

Alternative solution:

The "Recover Last Session" operator does not poll the filesystem from its poll function. This means that the operator is available even when the file ${TEMPDIR}/quit.blend does not exist. Changing this, such that the operator is disabled when quit.blend does not exists, means that the above solution would not have to remove the recovery operators when "Save Recovery File" is disabled. The operators would auto-detect whether a recovery file is available at all.

The upside of this solution is that it makes the "Recover Last Session" operator appear more reliable, as it refuses to work when it knows it cannot do its job. This would be an improvement regardless of the "Save Recovery File" status.

The downside is that an old quit.blend might be lingering around after "Save Recovery File" has been disabled. This means that it could appear as if you could still recover, but it would load an older file. This could be avoided by removing quit.blend when disabling "Save Recovery File", but I'm not a big fan of Blender explicitly removing files that are meant to recover from human error.

Discussion Topics

This task is meant to discuss the following:

Do we want to make it possible to quit without writing quit.blend at all?
If so, which of the solutions is preferred? Or is there another way to deal with this that's even better?
Do we want this as a general option, or something that's enabled only when "Developer Extras" are enabled?

### Description & Scope of Problem Every time Blender quits, when it has something on the undo stack, it will write the current "undo file" to `${TEMPDIR}/quit.blend` ([manual](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/files/blend/open_save.html#last-session)). Saving `quit.blend` can take a while when the file is large. While the file is being written, Blender's UI is gray and unresponsive. The problem is not pressing, as usually it takes considerably longer to load the files in the first place. I've asked some artists at the Blender Studio and they didn't really consider the delay when quitting Blender a practical issue. Still, it gets somewhat in the way of quickly testing things with various production blend files, so it could be seen as an issue for developers more than for artists. ### Possible Solutions & Impact **Simplest solution:** As a solution we could introduce a user preference "Save Recovery File" that is enabled by default. Disabling this option would: - Avoid writing `quit.blend`. - Remove the "File ‣ Recover ‣ Last Session" menu item. - Remove the "Recover Last Session" button from the splash screen. **Alternative solution:** The "Recover Last Session" operator does not poll the filesystem from its poll function. This means that the operator is available even when the file `${TEMPDIR}/quit.blend` does not exist. Changing this, such that the operator is disabled when `quit.blend` does not exists, means that the above solution would not have to remove the recovery operators when "Save Recovery File" is disabled. The operators would auto-detect whether a recovery file is available at all. The upside of this solution is that it makes the "Recover Last Session" operator appear more reliable, as it refuses to work when it knows it cannot do its job. This would be an improvement regardless of the "Save Recovery File" status. The downside is that an old `quit.blend` might be lingering around after "Save Recovery File" has been disabled. This means that it could appear as if you could still recover, but it would load an older file. This could be avoided by removing `quit.blend` when disabling "Save Recovery File", but I'm not a big fan of Blender explicitly removing files that are meant to recover from human error. ### Discussion Topics This task is meant to discuss the following: - Do we want to make it possible to quit without writing `quit.blend` at all? - If so, which of the solutions is preferred? Or is there another way to deal with this that's even better? - Do we want this as a general option, or something that's enabled only when "Developer Extras" are enabled?

Sybren A. Stüvel commented

2021-09-16 12:52:20 +02:00

Changed status from 'Needs Triage' to: 'Confirmed'

Sybren A. Stüvel commented

2021-09-16 12:52:20 +02:00

Added subscriber: @dr.sybren

Anton Raves commented

2021-09-16 16:56:44 +02:00

Added subscriber: @Memento

Anton Raves commented

2021-09-16 16:56:44 +02:00

Hello Sybren,

For Linux having such a file in /tmp can be very appreciated! Has saved my bacon a few times in the past. Make it an option in the Preferences, so users can decide for themselves if they want it written to disk, yes or no...

But for macOS, why it has to go to /var/folders/yw/0b8fs_892hddm2xsptytmx8r0000gn/T (with the hash-like bit alternating / changing?) is a little beyond me, this while macOS has a perfectly fine and official /tmp directory, even though it points to /private/tmp

Greetz,

Anton

Hello Sybren, For Linux having such a file in /tmp can be very appreciated! Has saved my bacon a few times in the past. Make it an option in the Preferences, so users can decide for themselves if they want it written to disk, yes or no... But for macOS, why it has to go to /var/folders/yw/0b8fs_892hddm2xsptytmx8r0000gn/T (with the hash-like bit alternating / changing?) is a little beyond me, this while macOS has a perfectly fine and official /tmp directory, even though it points to /private/tmp Greetz, ``` Anton

Harley Acheson commented

2021-09-17 03:43:17 +02:00

Added subscriber: @Harley

Harley Acheson commented

2021-09-17 03:43:17 +02:00

Separate from all these great solutions, it might also make sense to hide the app/main window before saving the "quit blend" during the quit process. I have used many apps that, when closing, seem to close immediately but really continue doing some operations for a while before completely exiting. Here is a patch that does that: https://developer.blender.org/D12558

Sybren A. Stüvel commented

2022-03-18 12:09:59 +01:00

@Harley personally I'm not a big fan of such behaviour. When Blender has quit, I want to be sure it's safe to reboot/shut down my computer, and not wait a few seconds more for some invisible thing to end.

Harley Acheson commented

2022-03-18 15:53:03 +01:00

@dr.sybren - Yes, no worries. It was just a thought. We’d probably bloat out that “hidden time” too after a while. I’ve abandoned that experiment.

Philipp Oeser removed the

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Make saving of quit.blend on exit optional #91452

Description & Scope of Problem

Possible Solutions & Impact

Discussion Topics

Make saving of `quit.blend` on exit optional #91452