Better behavior when apt updates Signal Desktop out from under it

[davidwords]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

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Bug Description

The desktop client failed silently: it left messages unsent and unreceived without making any sign of failure.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Go back in time to the evening of April 29.
2. Your girlfriend sends you a message. Your phone is on DND mode, but the Signal desktop client is up, and you're keeping an eye on it. Also send a message to another friend.
3. Later on in the evening, look at Signal on your phone, and observe how there are messages received there that did not reach the desktop client. Observe also, that the message to your friend did not reach them, and in fact the text has vanished from the desktop client.
4. Kill the desktop client. Observe the late-arriving crash dialog but neglect to copy the text.
5. Restart the desktop client. Observe the missing messages appear.
6. Bewail your fate and start making apologies.

Actual Result:

Expected Result:
Messages arrive in timely fashion, OR the desktop client fails spectacularly with a crash or error messages, or both.

Screenshots

Platform Info

Signal Version:

v1.33.4

Operating System:

Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS

Linked Device Version:

3.7.1.0

Link to Debug Log

https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/Kx3jqC2s4y/

https://debuglogs.org/9ae86a9cea1a235e2b4ae7e46087a1afe7aaac9a7fd24b4a97756d113008cdd1.zip

[davidwords]

The messages from the girlfriend were sent ~21:00 on the 29th.

The message to the friend was sent ~22:00 on the 29th.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

Looking at your log, Desktop seems to be humming along just fine, and then the next log entry is our first log on startup, app ready. Do you remember anything at all about the crash? Do you happen to have apt updating your packages in the background, for example updating Signal Desktop while it is running?

INFO  2020-04-29T23:47:50.857Z Sending a keepalive message
INFO  2020-04-29T23:48:46.018Z Sending a keepalive message
// crash?
INFO  2020-04-30T04:04:59.373Z app ready
INFO  2020-04-30T04:04:59.374Z starting version 1.33.4

[davidwords]

It wasn't a crash, per se: it seemed to be fine till I killed it.

apt wasn't running, not for Signal nor for any other package, afaik.

Only one more detail, I believe: the message-to-friend, made in the desktop client, showed only the Sent icon.

Deleted an untruth. No further icons appeared, and as I said up-thread, the text of my message vanished.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

I took another look at your log, and it seems that when you started up for that second time in the log, it was indeed with a new version:

INFO  2020-04-30T04:05:08.190Z New version detected: 1.33.4; previous: 1.33.3

Are you entirely sure you don't have background apt updates in place? It does look like apt updated Signal Desktop out from under it. It would certainly explain what was going on. There was no problem when it loaded up that second time, right?

[davidwords]

That's some fine detective work. Thank you.

I think the fundamental issue remains, though: silent failure.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

I've changed this to a feature request - handle things better when apt updates files out from under us.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.