Filing this bug after discussion on discussion.fpo: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/is-tracker-scanning-downloads-again-despite-the-folder-being-ignored/24828 It looks like the preferences which folders to index from the "Search" panel of gnome-control-center no longer affect tracker settings correctly. For example, I have turned off Search / indexing of the Downloads folder in gnome-control-center for privacy / security reasons, but this setting only appears to take effect, while the GSettings values for tracker / tracker 3 are unchanged: org.freedesktop.Tracker3.Miner.Files index-single-directories ['$HOME', '&DOWNLOAD'] org.freedesktop.Tracker3.Miner.Files index-recursive-directories ['&DOCUMENTS', '&MUSIC', '&PICTURES', '&VIDEOS', '/home/deca/University'] org.freedesktop.Tracker3.Miner.Files ignored-directories ['po', 'CVS', 'core-dumps', 'lost+found'] org.freedesktop.Tracker3.Miner.Files ignored-directories-with-content ['.trackerignore', '.git', '.hg', '.nomedia'] org.freedesktop.Tracker.Miner.Files index-single-directories ['$HOME', '&DOWNLOAD'] org.freedesktop.Tracker.Miner.Files ignored-directories ['po', 'CVS', 'core-dumps', 'lost+found'] org.freedesktop.Tracker.Miner.Files index-recursive-directories ['&DOCUMENTS', '&MUSIC', '&PICTURES', '&VIDEOS', '/home/deca/University'] org.freedesktop.Tracker.Miner.Files ignored-directories-with-content ['.trackerignore', '.git', '.hg', '.nomedia'] Both for tracker and tracker3, Downloads folder is listed in "index-single-directories" despite it being explicitly *disabled*. Checking with strace, I can confirm that the tracker-miner-fs-3 process are indeed scanning the Downloads folder, as there are many calls like this one: statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/deca/Downloads/$FILENAME", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT|AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW|AT_NO_AUTOMOUNT, STATX_ALL, {stx_mask=STATX_ALL|STATX_MNT_ID, stx_attributes=0, stx_mode=S_IFREG|0664, stx_size=40629933, ...}) = 0 Wasn't scanning of Downloads with tracker considered a security risk, with it getting turned off by default at some point? I also wanted to try changing tracker settings manually without using GNOME Settings, but it appears that the tracker-preferences GUI application no longer exists or is no longer shipped in fedora :(
Note that after removing the "old" non-tracker-3 packages, gnome-control-center doesn't even let me open the "Search locations" dialog. Looks like it's pointed at the tracker < 3 GSettings keys? Which might explain why changing the settings there doesn't actually affect the running tracker-3 daemons.
I also think that the default value in the GSettings schema for indexed folders should probably not include the Downloads folder ...
This bug (specifically the part where the exclusions are not respected) is accepted as a Fedora Prioritized Bug: https://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-meeting/2020-12-02/fedora_prioritized_bugs_and_issues.2020-12-02-16.00.log.html#l-36 The question of what the default settings should be are not a part of the Prioritized Bug status and may be better as a separate RFE bug.
It looks like I can no longer reproduce this issue with the latest tracker3 and gnome-control-center updates in F33. I'll continue trying, but if it doesn't happen again, I will close this bug and consider it fixed.
(In reply to Fabio Valentini from comment #4) > It looks like I can no longer reproduce this issue with the latest tracker3 > and gnome-control-center updates in F33. > I'll continue trying, but if it doesn't happen again, I will close this bug > and consider it fixed. Are you satisfied that the behavior is fixed, or should we keep this open a little longer?
I can no longer reproduce the original issue. Neither does tracker crash when downloading things, nor does strace show any tracker-miner-fs activity. So I think we can call this fixed with the latest F33 updates. Thanks for the ping. :-)