Instant Messaging provider and Trillian log files

[alanrf]

Readers of this thread will have noticed a little friendly disagreement between Tech and me. 

Let me just make clear that I believe that Tech and DavidR are the mainstays of this forum and that without them it would be a very sorry place.  They have an enormous wealth of knowledge and they provide the level of invaluable service to avast users that amazes me.  I know that I cannot match their enthusiasm, I certainly cannot imagine matching the level at which they work in this forum and I respect them both very much.

However, in my small way I too have developed some insight into this product.  Not for the first time I have read a thread (this one being an instance) and taken a look at the evidence and felt that things just did not add up. 

Since I have become a little weary of Tech quoting to me chapter and verse from the Book of Avast I have done what - it seems in the end - always becomes necessary. 

I have installed Trillian on my own system to see what is going on. 

The setup was pretty easy and, very conveniently, Trillian allows you to decide where you want to place the Trillian log files.  So to make this easy I moved the Trillian logs to a disk drive that has absolutely no other activity going on it.  It will come as no surprise that one of the Trillian logfiles has a file type of .log and another has a filetype of .xml'

Before taking any other action I noticed that in my Standard Shield exclusion list there is already an entry *.log; I do not know if this is a default avast setting or whether I have added it myself.

I started a disk activity monitor on the disk drive containing the Trillian log files. 

For a while I monitored as I started and stopped Trillian and made connections to Instant Messaging clients etc as Trillian wrote to the log files.  Then I started the avast Instant Messaging scanner. 

I watched as ashserve.exe accessed both the .log file and the .xml file despite the presence of *.log in my Standard Shield exclusion list. 

I added to the exclusion list the full path name of the folder in which the logs exist (J:\Logs\*.*) ashserve.exe continued to access both files on every write by Trillian. 

I stopped on access protection and restarted it; ashserve.exe continued to access both files on every write by Trillian.

I added to the exclusion list *.*; ashserve.exe continued to access both files on every write by Trillian.

I terminated the Instant Messaging scanner and ashserve.exe stopped accessing the log files.

We have now had two apparently well informed users reporting temporary "freezes" of their system while using Trillian and having large Trillian log files.  Both users have reported exclusions in the Standard Shield exclusion list have failed to relieve the freeze conditions.  The earlier user did report that if he removed the large Trillian log files and allowed Trillian to create new log files the problem went away.  That user finally opted to turn off the Instant Messaging scanner rather than forgo keeping the logs. 

My test shows that ashserve.exe continues to access the log file on the writes by Trillian and pays no attention to the exclusion list. 

I have to conclude that the Book of Avast is not literal truth after all.       

[Lisandro]

Readers of this thread will have noticed a little friendly disagreement between Tech and me.

No trouble. We need Vojtech's help 
Where is he?   

However, in my small way I too have developed some insight into this product.  Not for the first time I have read a thread (this one being an instance) and taken a look at the evidence and felt that things just did not add up.

You know much more about email & email clients & a lot of other things. Your cooperation is very welcome too. 

I watched as ashserve.exe accessed both the .log file and the .xml file despite the presence of *.log in my Standard Shield exclusion list.

I'm not sure, but access does not mean scan. Maybe, maybe, avast check the presence of the file and when it is about to scan it, just leave it alone... I'm really not sure. 

I added to the exclusion list *.*; ashserve.exe continued to access both files on every write by Trillian.

Either the users who have tried the exclusion list are incompetent - which I doubt or it does not work.
Recall that this user told us that an exclusion of *.* did not work ... since you are so sure please tell this user exactly how to make it work to stop the freezes. 

Couldn't it be a bug on avast? 

I have to conclude that the Book of Avast is not literal truth after all.

Igor, please, restore our confidence 

[alanrf]

I had already privately requested Igor's assistance with this thread but I guess that he is rather busy right now.

Just a couple of points - then I'm leaving this - since I can do no more on it and I'll hope that we hear from the avast team.

No point in avast checking the presence of the file and then doing nothing - if it does it is very badly written.

Scanning is really the only explanation of why the problem goes away if the large log file is deleted and Trillian starts a new one. 

 

[DavidR]

Personally I'm glad that you are around Alan, you have a far greater knowledge of the intricacies of email (and the willingness to go that extra mile for avast users) than I with a general knowledge. Or as some would say 'a little knowledge is dangerous'