10.5: Avoid Cover Flow view when looking at /tmp

Aug 27, '09 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

I noticed the Finder was consuming all of my memory and 40% of my CPU power. I found this reproducibly occurs if you leave a window open in /tmp, and have it set in Cover Flow view mode. When looking at /tmp, memory and CPU usage is higher than normal in other views as well, but Cover Flow really spikes it.

The CPU usage is not a bug, it's simply the Finder having to rapidly update the icons of the transient files flickering in and out of /tmp. As for the 3.5GB of memory usage, while this might indicate some sort of memory leak, I'd also guess it might instead be some sort of too-aggressive Finder caching that's unsuited for the transient directory behavior. (It takes a long time for the Finder to soak up all that memory, but the CPU effect is instant.)

So the hint is: don't view /tmp in Cover Flow view mode!

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