[Nepomuk] Review Request: Create a taskbar notification window when we run out of inotify watches

[Diederik de Haas]

On Sunday 14 October 2012 04:46:54 David Edmundson wrote:
>>     How about:
>>     "You have too many folders in your homedir to watch all of them for
>>instant search.  If you want to be sure to index new files, you should
>>ask your system administrator to raise the inotify watch limit." 
>>...
>>But I don't see a way around asking them to fiddle with their
>>system, sorry, unless we just say "You have too many folders in your
>>homedir to watch all of them for instant search."

I'm 'root' of the linux (Debian) machines in my LAN and I do and am comfortable 
with administrative tasks. But I have no clue about 'inotify watch limit' and 
where to set it and if I have to raise them, by how much.
I'm pretty sure I can find the answer(s) by googling them, but you can (and 
should?) make it easier to change it.
I'm also not sure if just doubling the limit is the right way either.

I'm no usability expert, but the following seems right to me:
In the folder selection screen, where you set the folders to be indexed, there's 
an immediate calculation of the needed inotify watches. Then that value is 
compared to the current limit and and if the limit is too low an edit box to 
shown to change that value is presented, posibly with an apply-button with a key 
on it, like on System Settings -> Login screen (so using PolKit). 

In other words: make/show the direct correlation between the (number of) 
selected folders and the inotify limit, but only when it's relevant.
Also, instead of just notifying the user of "your inotify limit is too low" or 
"you have too many folders to index" give a direct link to a place to change 
those values/settings.


My 0.02