CachyOS / CachyOS/distribution

[Bug]: Cachy-Update systray utility creates zombie `gio` processes when using the applet to actually update the system

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#538 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
bug
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Description

### Kernel

7.1.3-2-cachyos

### Desktop Environment / Window Manager

KDE Plasma

### CPU

AMD FX-6300

### GPU / Driver

NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB / nvidia 580.xx

### Description

When you use the system tray update checker icon to actually update your system, even if your system is fully up to date and it just asks you to press enter immediately, it spawns a zombie `gio` process that never gets cleaned up until the systray icon itself is killed and restarted. I only discovered this when I was checking to see if something else was running in `htop`, because these zombie processes don't take any resident memory of their own beyond what the Linux kernel itself allocates to actually register the PIDs and track them (and is the only state that isn't cleaned until the systray applet dies for any reason).

### Steps to Reproduce

1. Ensure the cachy-update system tray icon is visible, regardless of state.
2. Use said system tray icon to attempt to update your system; it doesn't matter if there's an update available or not, it happens either way.
3. Check `htop` and see that there is now a new `gio` zombie process that was spawned by the applet.
4. Profit?

### Expected Behavior

There should not be any zombie processes sitting resident in memory indefinitely after using the system tray icon to check for updates.

### Actual Behavior

There is exactly 1 `gio` process left in memory as a zombie after an update check using the system tray icon, with another spawning per additional update check, until the system tray applet is killed and restarted, at which point the count resets to zero.

### Logs / Error Messages

There are none that I know of; it's just a zombie process, and is likely a low priority bug due to minimal impact on system resources unless abused.

### Additional Context

_No response_

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Start with the cachy-update system tray utility and the code path run when the tray icon performs an update check. Reproduce the issue by triggering several checks, then inspect how spawned gio processes are waited for and cleaned up. Done means repeated checks leave no zombie gio processes, including when the system is already up to date.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
linux
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
55/100

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