Author Topic: Huge temp files are created and not removed  (Read 20197 times)

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LorenzoC

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Huge temp files are created and not removed
« on: May 07, 2008, 08:43:30 AM »
Upon scanning AVAST creates these files:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Impostazioni locali\Temp\_avast4_\unp35430682.tmp - 118.637 KB
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Impostazioni locali\Temp\_avast4_\unp234548821.tmp - 118.638 KB

I guess they are made during the unpacking of the Thunderbird mailboxes.
Problem is they are not removed when the scanning is interrupted.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2008, 08:47:20 AM by LorenzoC »

rassel

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Re: Huge temp files are created and not removed
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2008, 11:20:07 AM »
Can you delete it? if no than try this steps

Thats a quite huge files on your temp :o. Can you try run any cleaner that you have?e.g http://www.ccleaner.com/ or you can run it by going(Im using window XP but im not sure if yours is same as me) START>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup
if you still see the files than you download an unlocker or go here for more information http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/#download

Im not sure if i did it the right way but hope there is someone who can help you the better on your problem than using my ways.

What im helping here is to help you to delete the file.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2008, 11:31:16 AM by rassel »

LorenzoC

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Re: Huge temp files are created and not removed
« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2008, 11:35:21 AM »
Thanks for your help but you haven't got the point. :)

Those files are created "dinamically" by AVAST when you are scanning mailboxes, which are seen as "archives" actually.
I guess AVAST creates those files in order to look inside the archive and they are huge because the mailbox itself is huge.

Note: AVAST should either skip the mailboxes or have an option for it because scanning those huge archives is demanding and useless once the incoming mail is already scanned by the TSR provider.

Then AVAST should remove the temporary files when the scanning is done, and so it does, UNLESS you stop the scanning before it comes to the end.
In that case the files are left in the "_avast_" folder and that is not good.

Yes, I can manually remove the files but it would be better if AVAST took care of it upon stopping the scanner.
I guess I am not the only one with those leftovers in the HD.




« Last Edit: May 07, 2008, 11:41:46 AM by LorenzoC »

Offline igor

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Re: Huge temp files are created and not removed
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2008, 11:50:20 AM »
avast! normally removes the temporary files even when the scan is interrupted... must be some very time-consuming operation going on here.
What exactly are you scanning?

rassel

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Re: Huge temp files are created and not removed
« Reply #4 on: May 07, 2008, 11:52:45 AM »
Quote
you haven't got the point.
Sorry for not understanding your problem.

Quote
avast! normally removes the temporary files even when the scan is interrupted...

Yea my _avast4_ folder was empty even i did/interrupt a scan.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2008, 11:55:30 AM by rassel »

LorenzoC

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Re: Huge temp files are created and not removed
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2008, 12:13:07 PM »
I don't do anything special, I either run the "standard scan" on C: or the "scan" via Explorer extension (don't know if they are exactly the same).
I haven't seen what happens with the AVAST screen server scanning enabled.
At some point of the scanning AVAST meets my Thunderbird mailboxes, that are inside a "mail" folder of about 170MB. Not that big considering mail archives can be easily some Giga large.
It happened to me to stop the scanner and then I got those files in the "_avast_" , that apparently aren't removed upon scanner stopping.

The first time I manually removed the files thinking of a glitch but I can reproduce the same behaviour any time so I thought to post it here.

I don't have any problem in manually removing the files. If I leave the files in place, AVAST creates other files the next scanning passage and removes them when it finishes, leaving the "leftovers" there.

Oh, of course I don't remember what is in the mailboxes, I don't know if it could be a particular attachment or something. I remove all the spam anyway and the mailboxes should be "clean" of viruses.

On a side note, sorry for repeating, the scanning of mailboxes should be only optional. I don't see any point in scanning them each time.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2008, 12:24:04 PM by LorenzoC »

LorenzoC

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Re: Huge temp files are created and not removed
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2008, 05:52:17 PM »
To work around the issue I've set in "exclusions" this path:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Dati applicazioni\Thunderbird\Profiles\mc135pum.default\Mail\*

It is something that should be addressed in a smarter way then, first because not all users are able to work around, then because, even if I know my PC is slow (PIII 500), it doens't sound that good AVAST put on its knees by a mailbox about 120MB large...

« Last Edit: May 07, 2008, 05:53:56 PM by LorenzoC »

Offline igor

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Re: Huge temp files are created and not removed
« Reply #7 on: May 07, 2008, 07:55:35 PM »
Try to enable the creation of the report file in avast! settings and let everything, even "OK files", be included there. Then, scan the mail folder again.
I'd like to know what's found there - because there wouldn't be any temporary files for ordinary scanning, it must be some "archive extraction". Maybe the MIME unpacker is seeing the mailbox as one message and a big attachment, don't know...

LorenzoC

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Re: Huge temp files are created and not removed
« Reply #8 on: May 07, 2008, 08:50:08 PM »
Ok, I've got the report file, what should I do with it?

BTW there's nothing in it, here is the block of one of the mailboxes, the largest, the others are identical:
(I've shortened the path to \mail)

\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Inbox\PartNo_0#599384397\PartNo_0#38486210\PartNo_0#3100651197 [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Inbox\PartNo_0#599384397\PartNo_0#38486210\PartNo_1#3325552817 [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Inbox\PartNo_0#599384397\PartNo_0#38486210 [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Inbox\PartNo_0#599384397 [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Inbox [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Templates
  • is OK

\Mail\pop.gmail.com\msgFilterRules.dat [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\popstate.dat [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Inbox.msf [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Trash\PartNo_0#3517757697 [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Trash\PartNo_1#2142653006 [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Trash [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Trash.msf [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Drafts
  • is OK

\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Drafts.msf [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Junk
  • is OK

\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Junk.msf [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Templates.msf [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Sent\PartNo_0#1731396481 [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Sent [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)
\Mail\pop.gmail.com\Sent.msf [E] File was skipped because of scanner settings. (42016)

Now tell me AVAST creates the huge temporary files only to skip content :)
« Last Edit: May 07, 2008, 09:11:26 PM by LorenzoC »

Offline alanrf

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Re: Huge temp files are created and not removed
« Reply #9 on: May 07, 2008, 11:59:44 PM »
The problem here is, in part, Thunderbird itself. 

Thunderbird mail files have name likes "Inbox" and "Sent".  They have no file types on mail folders at all.  Thunderbird mail files are huge long text files containing all the messages in clear text concatenated one message after the other.  They look to avast as though each folder is one long .eml file.  So avast can, at least it has only ever been able so far, scan the very first message in each Thunderbird mail folder only.

The problem is that avast does not know that these files are Thunderbird mail files it has standard way of detecting them as such.

avast has been scanning my Thunderbird mail folders for years and I have some Thunderbird archive folders very much larger than yours.  However in recent times I have arranged my Thunderbird settings so that the archive files are held in a different folder that I exclude from scanning by avast - because it saves time in the scan and because avast does not understand them anyway.

I have not seen the problem of large temporary files being left around by avast but I do not usually interrupt my scans either.

I have just removed the exclusion and had the current version of avast scan my large Thunderbird archives.  It scanned them (1.8Gb of them) and it did complain - in the report - about one part being too large to scan, otherwise it completed without leaving any temporary files around.

I suspect that any abnormal termination of the avast scan might well leave one or more temporary files around that will not get cleaned up. 
« Last Edit: May 08, 2008, 12:06:22 AM by alanrf »

Offline alanrf

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Re: Huge temp files are created and not removed
« Reply #10 on: May 08, 2008, 12:27:53 AM »
I am not sure what is happening with your exclusion setting.  I just tried the same setting om my system and here is part of  the report:

As in your case I have shortened the path information.

Quote
Profiles\default.4p3\key3.db
  • is OK

Profiles\default.4p3\localstore.rdf
  • is OK

Profiles\default.4p3\Mail\Gmail1 [E] Skipped due to exclusions settings. (42019)
Profiles\default.4p3\Mail\Hotmail1 [E] Skipped due to exclusions settings. (42019)
Profiles\default.4p3\Mail\Hotmail2 [E] Skipped due to exclusions settings. (42019)
Profiles\default.4p3\Mail\Hotmail3 [E] Skipped due to exclusions settings. (42019)
Profiles\default.4p3\Mail\hotmail3-1 [E] Skipped due to exclusions settings. (42019)
Profiles\default.4p3\Mail\Local Folders [E] Skipped due to exclusions settings. (42019)
Profiles\default.4p3\Mail\localhost [E] Skipped due to exclusions settings. (42019)
Profiles\default.4p3\Mail\mail.comcast-1.net [E] Skipped due to exclusions settings. (42019)
Profiles\default.4p3\Mail\mail.comcast-2.net [E] Skipped due to exclusions settings. (42019)
Profiles\default.4p3\Mail\mail.comcast.net [E] Skipped due to exclusions settings. (42019)
Profiles\default.4p3\Mail\MSN [E] Skipped due to exclusions settings. (42019)
Profiles\default.4p3\Mail\pop.gmail-1.com [E] Skipped due to exclusions settings. (42019)
Profiles\default.4p3\Mail\Yahoo1 [E] Skipped due to exclusions settings. (42019)
Profiles\default.4p3\Mail\Yahoo2 [E] Skipped due to exclusions settings. (42019)
Profiles\default.4p3\mailViews.dat
  • is OK

Offline igor

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Re: Huge temp files are created and not removed
« Reply #11 on: May 08, 2008, 12:35:04 AM »
Well, as I said - the MIME unpacker is trying to extract something from the mailboxes here (it's the PartNo_* lines; maybe it misunderstood the structure of appended e-mails, somehow). I guess the resulting "extracted" files are rather huge... but I'm afraid it's hard to say much more without seeing the actual files (mailboxes)  :-\

Offline alanrf

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Re: Huge temp files are created and not removed
« Reply #12 on: May 08, 2008, 12:41:19 AM »
In further checking ...

I am suspecting that your exclusion setting may end "Mail\ *" with a space before the asterisk.  If I have that setting my results  look similar to yours.

LorenzoC

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Re: Huge temp files are created and not removed
« Reply #13 on: May 08, 2008, 08:51:28 AM »
@alanrf: if you are referring to me, I don't have any problem with exclusions, thunderbird mail is not scanned now. Like I said in the first post, I wanted to point out that if I cancel the scanning using the proper button before it ends (both standard and explorer extension) big temporary files are left in the _avast_ folder.
No other issues, besides the scanning being obviously slow when scanning the mail.

@igor: yes, I understand the mechanics of the thing. But see:
1. I guess Thunderbird uses a standard MBOX format for storing mail, not a proprietary one. File names in the folders should not be an issue. Everybody using Thunderbird has the same file format and naming.
2. My mailboxes aren't particularly huge (the whole "mail" is 170MB) and there isn't anything strange inside. There can be some images or PDF / Office documents attached, nothing more. Mailboxes are also "compacted".
3. My point is the way AVAST handles the mail scanning MUST be verified and no matter what it does upon scanning, it should be able to stop the scanning removing temporary files, expecially because by default it scans the mailboxes it EVERY TIME you scan your disk (of course unless you manually exclude).
4. If AVAST opens the mailboxes only to skip the content that is a joke.

Offline alanrf

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Re: Huge temp files are created and not removed
« Reply #14 on: May 08, 2008, 09:46:11 AM »
LorenzoC

my posts were directed to you.  Igor is familiar with the format of Thunderbird files ... he and I have discussed them a  number of times over the years in this forum. 

I was explaining to you that I have very much larger files in my Thunderbird and I have had since before I started using avast.   Everyone of the folks I support using avast also use Thunderbird.  None of us are experiencing any problems with avast scanning Thunderbird files - nor are we seeing any significant complaints from other users about avast and Thunderbird.

Quote
I don't have any problem with exclusions, thunderbird mail is not scanned now.

The post of your avast report shows that clearly it is still being scanned. 

It seems likely you do have a problem with your exclusion setting.  I used the exclusion setting correctly and it produced the results I posted showing avast skipping the avast folders completely.

Quote
4. If AVAST opens the mailboxes only to skip the content that is a joke.

If there is a joke ... then it is not by avast and certainly not appearing on my system. As I clearly posted ... that does not occur with the exclusions set properly. 

If the exclusion is not entered properly, as I also described, then I get results from the avast scan very similar to the report you posted.

Compacted just means that the deleted mails have been removed from the folder.  I do notice that you do seem to have a large trash folder - Thunderbird provides options to clear that out for you (and reduce avast scan time) - unless you deliberately need to keep the trash.

I guess I have to repeat again that avast does not understand the format of the mail folders of Thunderbird.  It only can understand the first email message stored in the folder - the all the rest of the messages in the folder is just text to it and so scanning it is not valuable.

I have spent quite some time today in scanning my large Thunderbird files to try to reproduce the "left over files" that you experienced.  I can see the large files being created but every attempt I have made to interrupt then I can see avast cleaning up the files before it terminates.  I do not doubt that you experienced those files but reproducing the condition does not appear to be easy.