winmerge-settings.ini corrupted

[dcog989]

winmerge-settings-corrupted.zip

While designing a new theme for WinMerge I noticed that my settings ini file had grown to over 4000 lines because garbage text was being added each time I updated settings - e.g.:

ResizeableDialogs/SaveClosingDlg=1614,767,2226,1393
rFilterPath=D:\Documents
ents

ttings/CSVDelimiterCharacter=,
ngs/TSVFilePatterns=*.tsv
*.tsv
oInclude=
mDlgDontAskAgain=6
(){}<=>`'!"#$%&^~\|@+-*/


leTypes/ASP.exts=asp;ascx
x
leTypes/ASP.exts=asp;ascx
s;vb;vbs;frm;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr
r
s;vb;vbs;frm;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr
;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr

;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr
sr

;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr

;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr

;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr

;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr
r

;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr
;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr
l;pag;dsr
r

;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr
;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr
;ctl;pag;dsr
;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr
ag;dsr
;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr
sr
ag;dsr
;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr
ag;dsr
;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr
r
ag;dsr
;dsm;cls;ctl;pag;dsr

This was happening when I was comparing a saved version of my settings file against the current settings file which I made local by starting WinMerge with "C:\Program Files (x86)\WinMerge\WinMergeU.exe" /inifile "C:\Users\Bubba\AppData\Roaming\WinMerge\winmerge-settings.ini". Could this be the issue?

Another possibility is that I had commented my theme file, like so:

DefaultSyntaxColors/Bold13=0 ; preprocessor
;DefaultSyntaxColors/Bold14=0 ; ??????
;DefaultSyntaxColors/Bold15=0 ; ??????
;DefaultSyntaxColors/Bold16=0 ; ??????
;DefaultSyntaxColors/Bold17=0 ; ??????
;DefaultSyntaxColors/Bold18=0 ; ??????
;DefaultSyntaxColors/Bold19=0 ; ??????
DefaultSyntaxColors/Bold20=0 ; User 1
DefaultSyntaxColors/Bold21=0 ; User 2
;DefaultSyntaxColors/Bold22=0 ; ??????
;DefaultSyntaxColors/Bold23=0 ; ??????
;DefaultSyntaxColors/Bold24=0 ; ??????
;DefaultSyntaxColors/Bold25=0 ; ??????

;------------------------------------------------------------
; Syntax Colors
DefaultSyntaxColors/Color00=0x82e31a ; ?????? #82e31a #1ae382
DefaultSyntaxColors/Color01=0x363636 ; whitespace background
DefaultSyntaxColors/Color02=0x363636 ; regular text background
DefaultSyntaxColors/Color03=0xd4d4d4 ; text color
DefaultSyntaxColors/Color04=0x303030 ; margin line numbers background
DefaultSyntaxColors/Color05=0x408080 ; selected text background
DefaultSyntaxColors/Color06=0xdedede ; selected text color
DefaultSyntaxColors/Color07=0xe9c8a0 ; keywords
DefaultSyntaxColors/Color08=0xeec6f9 ; function names

Maybe those comments were the cause? Although the problem seems to have gone away now I've gone back to using the registry?

[sdottaka]

At the moment I don't know the cause, but I was able to reproduce the issue where invalid lines were added when pressing the OK button in the Options dialog while comparing the INI files being used.

[dcog989]

Did you also notice that there seems to be a long delay in saving / updating? Perhaps it is related to the invalid data being added?

[sdottaka]

Did you also notice that there seems to be a long delay in saving / updating? Perhaps it is related to the invalid data being added?

So far I haven't noticed any long delays.

It seems that this issue can be avoided by unchecking the "Another application updated %1since last scan. Reload?" checkbox in the Message Boxes section of the Options dialog.

I suspect that this issue occurs when writing to an INI file and reading from it at the same time, but I can't think of a solution at the moment.

[dcog989]

There was a definite delay for me compared to normal operation - which is instant when pressing OK to save settings.

Yeah, that would make sense - both writing and reading to the settings file. I guess this is an edge case so not a big problem?