my machine appears to have ground to a near total halt and i can hear the macpro churning. i am trying to close out of aperture by clicking CLOSE from the Dock Icon or QUIT from the pulldown to no avail.
given that I am also closing out other software in an attempt to shut down and restart is there a correct way to shut down aperture and/or things to watch out for in order to protect my database integrity/
TIA
There is no good alternative.
IME, the choice is:
- let it run (perhaps for a couple of hours) and see if it finishes processing and either closes or can be closed
- Force Quit.
Force Quitting is always a bad idea, especially for databases. You should run "Repair Library" after any Force-Quit.
At the least, if you can, give it twenty minutes to think about things.
There is no good alternative.
IME, the choice is:
- let it run (perhaps for a couple of hours) and see if it finishes processing and either closes or can be closed
- Force Quit.
Force Quitting is always a bad idea, especially for databases. You should run "Repair Library" after any Force-Quit.
At the least, if you can, give it twenty minutes to think about things.
hi kirby. thank you for the helpful info.
apparently a kernel_task is taking up 80+ percent of CPU on my system. i can't read Activity Monitor very well but Aperture is still locked up a couple hours later so I guess I am closing all my apps and then quitting the Mac even though Aperture will not close out?
should I try to do a FORCE QUIT of Aperture instead of going to the Shut Down of the machine?
also, can i please ask you if there is an accepted library file size or number of images that should cause me to split my database?
thanks!
"→Shut Down" is always preferred over Force Quit. If Aperture is hung, you won't be able to shut down the computer via "→Shut Down", in which case the only way to shut down is to Force Quit and then "→Shut Down"
There is no size limit in terms of number of Images or file size of the Aperture package that should cause any concern. (I have run 500 GB Libraries with nearly half a million Images on Mac laptops with 4 GB of RAM.) The application is (very) hardware intensive, but it doesn't seem to get noticeably worse as one's Library grows, as long as one takes the usual precautions for running Aperture well. Don't over-stuff your drives. Imho, performance is not a good reason to divide a Library. If you need more drive space, buy it. If you need better performance, splitting a Library is not likely to make any difference.
Hi Kirby.
Thank you for a great explanation and some great help.
That was weird. I could see the Dock icon with the Spotlight below it and I could see the Aperture Pulldown Menus but nothing else. Quit, and Force Quite from the Pulldown and the Dock Icon respectively did not work but finally a Force Quite with CMD+Option+Escape worked.
At this point is there a good reason to RESTART the computer?
Also, can I just ask you if it is sufficient to run the Repair Library and move on? Should I run Repair Library periodically even if it has not crashed?
Was there anything else I should be doing other than talking nicely to it and running multiple /clones/ of my Hard Drive? I mean, I have heard a lot about "vaults" but I just run backups of my Hard Drives at the moment and am new to databases so the concept of a vault is a little confusing for me.
Thanks,
Jon
Why is shut down better than force quit? Assuming you can shut down.
When you Force Quit, this will send the signals SIGKILL and SIGSTOP to all processes. These signals cannot be caught, blocked, or ignored - it is like pulling the plug. The processes will exit immediately, without an opportunity of closing any files properly and without finishing database transactions. Your Aperture library may be left in an inconsistent state and need repairing.
Shutdown will send SIGTERM (if I remember correctly)- this signal can be caught and ignored by the processes, so they can finish essential transactions and can close open files before they exit. No need for database repair, if you exit this way.
I never knew that.
Thanks. I will Shutdown from now on.
Does Reboot send the same SIGTERM commands?
Hi Leonie.
Thank you. I am always grateful for your and other experts' help on the forum.
Can I just make sure I understand this precisely? I see two ways to shut down a program (File > Quit pulldown or Dock Icon > Quit) two ways to Force Quit out of a program in Mac (Right click on Dock Icon Pulldown to Force Quit and CMD + OPTION + Esc) and two ways to shut down (Apple Pulldown > Shut Down and literally turning off using the power button on my computer).
I am sure I have bungled that a little bit but you are suggesting that the best option in the case of a database program such as Aperture is to - -
Try a /normal/ Quit of the software and if this does not work go STRAIGHT to Shut Down of the Computer from the Apple Pulldown Menu Item?
If correct (or close) is this for programs on the Mac that contain databases or for all Mac Software...?
THANK YOU
Does Reboot send the same SIGTERM commands?
I can only guess (I am travelling right now and away from my manuals) - but since Reboot is a "Shutdown" followed by "Restart" it should do the same.
The SIGTerm is the signal that is usually sent by "Quit" - and to shutdown is a way to send the same signals as the "Quit" button, if the user interface is unresponsive. This may happen, if you run into a deadlock or a program performs a task that takes forever right in the thread that should respond to user interactions.
leonieDF wrote:
(I am travelling right now and away from my manuals)
Well, close your laptop, put it away and keep your eyes on the road. (I hope your not using a Mac Pro)
But, thanks.
See my answer above:
If the quit button is unresponsive, a shutdown will send the same signal as the "Quit" button would. So you can get the message trough, even thru a blocked GUI.
But the "SIGTERM" can be caught by the program - if a program is not willing to quit, you may have to force quit in the end.
You could do the same from the Terminal, if you know how to find out the process id of the parent process of an application.
Well, close your laptop, put it away and keep your eyes on the road.
Thanks for your concern for my safety, Kevin, 😁 I am not the one sitting behind the wheel ...
Sorry, Jon, I got interrupted by Apple maintainance again, before I could answer the second part of your question:
If correct (or close) is this for programs on the Mac that contain databases or for all Mac Software...?
You should avoid to force quit any program that keeps persistent data or modifies data of other programs: databases, programs that write documents or other files, programs that keeps preference lists, it applies to nearly all programs.
Regards
Léonie
Thanks for some great info Leonie, All.
I will have to study it a bit and make sure I am following it from here on out.
Regards. Thanks.
aperture locked up and can't quit
