#523 Corrupt taskcoach file

[R. WIgle]

I have been using taskcoach for a number of years with no problems. I've stored the taskcoach files on Dropbox and now owncloud. Today when I opened taskcoach it reported that the file had an error. I've also pasted in the tail end of taskcoachlog.txt.

Any suggestions would be welcome. I am running taskcoach 1.4.6 on Ubuntu 18.04.3

============= Fri Jan 31 12:01:25 2020
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/taskcoachlib/gui/iocontroller.py", line 125, in open
breakLock=breakLock)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/taskcoachlib/persistence/taskfile.py", line 661, in load
return super(LockedTaskFile, self).load(filename)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/taskcoachlib/persistence/taskfile.py", line 391, in load
tasks, categories, notes, syncMLConfig, changes, guid = self._read(fd)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/taskcoachlib/persistence/taskfile.py", line 371, in _read
return xml.XMLReader(fd).read()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/taskcoachlib/persistence/xml/reader.py", line 89, in read
tree = ET.parse(self.__fd, parser)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/xml/etree/ElementTree.py", line 1182, in parse
tree.parse(source, parser)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/xml/etree/ElementTree.py", line 657, in parse
self._root = parser.close()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/xml/etree/ElementTree.py", line 1671, in close
self._raiseerror(v)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/xml/etree/ElementTree.py", line 1523, in _raiseerror
raise err
ParseError: unclosed token: line 522, column 0
============= Fri Jan 31 14:22:29 2020
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/taskcoachlib/gui/iocontroller.py", line 125, in open
breakLock=breakLock)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/taskcoachlib/persistence/taskfile.py", line 661, in load
return super(LockedTaskFile, self).load(filename)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/taskcoachlib/persistence/taskfile.py", line 391, in load
tasks, categories, notes, syncMLConfig, changes, guid = self._read(fd)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/taskcoachlib/persistence/taskfile.py", line 371, in _read
return xml.XMLReader(fd).read()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/taskcoachlib/persistence/xml/reader.py", line 89, in read
tree = ET.parse(self.__fd, parser)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/xml/etree/ElementTree.py", line 1182, in parse
tree.parse(source, parser)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/xml/etree/ElementTree.py", line 657, in parse
self._root = parser.close()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/xml/etree/ElementTree.py", line 1671, in close
self._raiseerror(v)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/xml/etree/ElementTree.py", line 1523, in _raiseerror
raise err
ParseError: unclosed token: line 522, column 0

I got the suggestion to look for a backup (none exists) or to look for an older version under owncloud. But the "old one" is now the same corrupted one. My question now is why taskcoach is not creating a backup (or 2)?

[R. WIgle]

I have recovered three tsk files from various vintages over the last week and now they all give errors when I open them. I have included the tail of the taskcoachlog.txt.
This is tasckcoach 1.4.6 under Ubuntu 18.04.3

[Jérome Laheurte]

Not much we can do then; it looks like the file has been truncated and is thus not valid XML any more. There is an option for automatic backups inside Task Coach itself but it must be enabled explicitely IIRC; you can check in the preferences if it is for you.

[R. WIgle]

It does seem like the file was corrupted by owncloud.

I can't find backup under any of the preference tabs. Am I missing something?

[R. WIgle]

When I go to manage backups I can't select any of the files so the "Restore" button isn't activated.

[Aaron Wolf]

Just in case this is the issue (it happened to me): make sure the files to select aren't hidden by the backup dialogue being too small. I think there's a file listing and then a date listing, and you have to select a date as well. But in my case, the dates were hidden, and until I dragged to make the dialogue window larger, I didn't see that and didn't know it was there.

[R. WIgle]

Aaron: Thanks for the suggestion. I did as you suggested and there are backups but they are from several months ago. I don't see how I would create a backup or set up automatic backups.

[Aaron Wolf]

Maybe there's a chance that owncloud backed up some other backup even, but I'm doubtful. Jerome might be able to know if the way backups work would be connected to that.

I'm sorry for the real loss for you. In my case, I back up my own hard drive regularly onto a couple backup drives so that I always have those to fall back on and not just a cloud backup.

I know it can be really frustrating to lose valuable work. My sympathies!

[Denis Q]

Adiu,
Je pense avoir un problème similaire (j'espère sinon j'ouvrirai un autre fil de discussion)....
I have the feeling that I have a similar pb...

Error al leer /fichiers_de_travail/Agro_foresterie/Satoyama/Satoyama_lo_bosc.tsk:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/taskcoachlib/gui/iocontroller.py", line 125, in open
    breakLock=breakLock)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/taskcoachlib/persistence/taskfile.py", line 660, in load
    self.acquire_lock(filename)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/taskcoachlib/persistence/taskfile.py", line 638, in acquire_lock
    self.__lock = self.__createLockFile(filename)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/taskcoachlib/persistence/taskfile.py", line 622, in __createLockFile
    if self.__isFuse(filename):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/taskcoachlib/persistence/taskfile.py", line 612, in __isFuse
    if os.path.abspath(path).startswith(mountPoint) and fsType.startswith('fuse.'):
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xc3 in position 23: ordinal not in range(128)

El gestor de respaldo se abrirá ahora para que pueda restaurar
una versión anterior de este archivo.

Cependant le problème ne vient pas de la corruption du fichier .tsk puisque j'ouvre le dit fichier sans soucis depuis le portable. Par ailleurs le dialogue de restauration s'ouvre correctement et je peut choisir de restaurer une ancienne version, de ce côté là tout fonctionne bien. Sauf que le fichier restauré produit la même erreur.

Avant pb : linux mageia 6 ; le prob est survenu avec la mise à jour vers mageia 7, et je présume que peut-être le soucis vient du côté de python ?

However this issue doesn't come from a currupt .tsk file, since I can easily recover, from the appropriate dialog window which work well, a precedent version. But this recovered file produce the same result.

Before : linux mageia 6 ; the problem came with the upgrade to mageia 7, and i suppose that it might came from the new installation of python.

Python... Python 2.7.17 et aussi Python 3.7.6

Est-ce possible qu'il y ait des confusions entre les deux, comme j'ai lu sur un autre sujet que python 3 n'est pas supporté.

Is there a possibility of cross confusing links in between python 2 and 3 ?

[Aaron Wolf]

Hi, it's some years later but I'm excited to tell you that https://github.com/taskcoach/taskcoach now has Task Coach updated to Python3! I'm using it myself, and things are working better than ever. Packages are available for some common Linux systems and for Windows (note that it isn't recognized by Windows Smartscreen but can be installed by accepting the warning anyway)

We'd love to have you test the updated program, and post any issues that arise there at GitHub

We won't be continuing with SourceForge, just clearing out old issues and letting people know about the move

Cheers