Checkgmail Uses 100% CPU at Startup

While using checkgmail on Ubuntu 7.10 I was running checkgmail with no problem at all. I not too long ago upgraded to Ubuntu 8.04 and quickly noticed that checkgmail was taking 30+ seconds to start and was taking 100% of my CPU.

I did a search on Google and found a lot of users experiencing the same problem. It took a bit of reading, which is why I am posting this, and found that it is do the localizations (languages) that are loaded into checkgmail. There are 1,728 lines in checkgmail devoted to localization and I imagine that it is due to parsing this data that is causing the 100% CPU useage.

The solution to speeding up checkgmail is to remove all of the localizations that you don’t need. For me this was removing lines 3089-3280 and 3346-4817 or checkgmail and the corresponding lines in ~/.checkgmail/lang.xml.

I have created some patches to take care of this but cannot guarantee that with updates to the code that the localizations will remain on the same lines as they are this minute. So use with care. The patches can be applied as such:

wget http://sivel.net/patch/checkgmail/checkgmail_1.13svn_slowstart_checkgmail_en.patch
wget http://sivel.net/patch/checkgmail/checkgmail_1.13svn_slowstart_langxml_en.patch
patch /usr/bin/checkgmail checkgmail_1.13svn_slowstart_checkgmail_en.patch
patch ~/.checkgmail/lang.xml checkgmail_1.13svn_slowstart_langxml_en.patch

If you have checkgmail running kill it and start it up again. It should have started almost instantly and not taken 100% CPU to do so.

Updating WordPress Plugins for 2.6 Compatibility

I’m in the middle of updating all of my WordPress plugins, excluding those that I have previously marked as end of life, for WordPress 2.6 compatibility.

The changes in 2.6 will not affect the large majority of WordPress users so the current versions should work without problem.

I hope to release all updated plugins at the same time. I’m not quite sure when that will happen so keep an eye out. I may have to leave Shadowbox JS off the list and release the update later seeing as though I have to get Shadowbox 2.0 into the this coming release.

Message to WordPress Plugin Developers: Use the WordPress Plugin Repository!

This message is for all of the WordPress plugin developers out there.

Use the WordPress plugin repository dammit!

Reasons to use the WordPress plugin repository:

1. It is free
2. It gives your plugin a lot of exposure
3. It isn’t dependent on your crappy $5.95/month hosting
4. It provides real download links that can be used with wget and not those annoying download counters
5. The WordPress software will allow the blog owner to see that there is an update to your plugin
6. It will work with the WordPress auto updater

Now stop only providing download links on your site and publish your plugins in the WordPress plugins repository!

Let me put it this way…The next time I am looking for a plugin and I find yours, and it is not hosted in the WordPress plugin repository, I am taking your code, publishing it in the WordPress plugin directory and I wont acknowledge you as the author!

I’m tired of using outdated WordPress plugins because it wasn’t hosted where it should be and I wasn’t notified that an update was available, and come to find out that it wasn’t even working!

And yes I am using a lot of exclamation points! It’s because I am pissed!

LinuxWorld Expo 2008 San Francisco

I’ll be attending the LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco at the beginning of August. I’ll be arriving mid way through the conference so that I can attend to my sons first birthday and celebrations.

I’ll be attending the exhibit hall and keynote addresses on Wednesday and Thursday (Aug 6 + 7), as well as Ubucon and flying back out on Friday. To those reading this who will be out there for the conference, maybe we will run into each other.