Select All followed by Replace All sometimes causes infinite loop

[molsonkiko]

As shown below, this is on Columns++ v1 (not your newer v1.0.1).

To replicate:

1. Create a file with the text

foo
  bar
   baz blood
 dog godly
     dude   due

2. Search for \b\w{3}\b (with Search...) to select all (the option under the Count button) the three-char words.
3. Click anywhere in the document (I think it has to be somewhere in the middle, not at the beginning or end) so the text of interest is marked but not selected.
4. Find/replace (still with the Search... GUI) d with xy to attempt to convert all the d chars in the selected text only into xy. Sometimes (again, I haven't had the time to diagnose exactly what causes it), this will cause an infinite loop and I will need to hard-shutdown NPP.

In any case, the desired result of this process is the following:

foo
  bar
   baz blood
 xyog godly
     dude   xyue

Here's my debug info (I also have JsonTools, but I disabled it to test if it was involved in this, and it wasn't)

Notepad++ v8.5.8   (64-bit)
Build time : Oct 15 2023 - 21:43:56
Path : C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Command Line : 
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : OFF
Cloud Config : OFF
OS Name : Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
OS Version : 22H2
OS Build : 19045.3803
Current ANSI codepage : 1252
Plugins : 
    ColumnsPlusPlus (1)
    ComparePlus (1.1)
    CSVLint (0.4.6.5)
    EnhanceAnyLexer (1.1.3)
    HexEditor (0.9.12)
    HTMLTag (1.4.1)
    HugeFiles (0.4.1)
    mimeTools (2.9)
    NavigateTo (2.6.5.1)
    NppConverter (4.5)
    NppExport (0.4)
    NppLspClient (0.0.13)
    PythonScript (3.0.16)
    QuickText (0.2.5.1)
    XMLTools (3.1.1.13)

[Coises]

@molsonkiko Step three in your instructions for replication confuses me.

If you click in the document, the selection will be removed but the indicated region will be unchanged. To set the indicated region to the result of the Select All, you would need either to have clicked the Set button before you clicked anywhere in the document, or (with Auto set checked) proceeded to the next search without clicking inside the document.

[Coises]

@molsonkiko Do you have any additional information? I can’t reproduce this. I don’t see the state you describe in step three unless I do something between steps two and three that you did not list (e.g., click the Set button; or repeat the Select All; or Count). Using Notepad++ 8.4.8 x64 and Columns++ 1.0, even with one of these additions, I’m not seeing a hang.

I’d like to fix this, but I have no clue what to fix.

[molsonkiko]

Now that you mention it, I can't replicate this anymore when I try it again. I really have no idea what the differences would be. Possibly an interaction with the Hex Editor plugin that I uninstalled since then?

In any case, here's my new debug info, now that I can't reproduce it anymore.

I'm not going to close this myself, but you can if you want.

Notepad++ v8.5.8   (64-bit)
Build time : Oct 15 2023 - 21:43:56
Path : C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Command Line : 
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : OFF
Cloud Config : OFF
OS Name : Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
OS Version : 22H2
OS Build : 19045.3803
Current ANSI codepage : 1252
Plugins : 
    ColumnsPlusPlus (1)
    ComparePlus (1.1)
    CSVLint (0.4.6.5)
    EnhanceAnyLexer (1.1.3)
    HTMLTag (1.4.1)
    HugeFiles (0.4.1)
    JsonTools (6.0.0.11)
    mimeTools (2.9)
    NavigateTo (2.7)
    NppConverter (4.5)
    NppExport (0.4)
    NppLspClient (0.0.13)
    PythonScript (3.0.16)
    QuickText (0.2.5.1)
    XMLTools (3.1.1.13)

[Coises]

Closing as stale. We can reopen this if a way to reproduce it is found. Anyone else experiencing a similar problem should probably open a new issue.

[Coises]

@molsonkiko I have stumbled across this bug myself, now, in an easily reproducible form:

1. Open a new tab and enter abcde (nothing else, no end of line).
2. Open Columns++ | Search..., set up a regular expression search to find bcd and replace with x, and click Replace All.

This will hang Columns++ (and hence Notepad++).

This is a serious bug, since a hang results in loss of unsaved changes in all open tabs.

I believe I see the cause, and it appears to be a simple oversight on my part, so hopefully it won’t take long to post an updated version.