File watching does not work when workspace is opened from a Linux network path

[VilikNakhshikyan]

Hi team,

I’m experiencing a problem with file watching in Theia on Linux when the workspace is opened from a network path․

When I edit files using external tools like vim or another editor, the changes are not detected by Theia.
I get the following popup message:

"Unable to watch for file changes in this large workspace. Please follow the instructions link to resolve this issue."

The popup links to the VS Code documentation:
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/linux#_visual-studio-code-is-unable-to-watch-for-file-changes-in-this-large-workspace-error-enospc

I have already tried everything suggested there:

Increased fs.inotify.max_user_watches
Increased fs.inotify.max_user_instances
Increased fs.inotify.max_queued_events
Applied the changes system-wide and verified with sysctl -a
Restarted the system and Theia multiple times

However, the problem still persists only when the workspace is located on a network-mounted path.
Local paths work fine.

Environment
Local OS: AlmaLinux 8.10
Net OS: CentOS 7
Theia version: 1.62.2

Are there any recommended settings or workarounds for this scenario?

Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks!

[msujew]

Hey @VilikNakhshikyan,

I'm not entirely sure how much we can actually do there, since the error simply indicates that parcel-watcher errored out while trying to watch the workspace. Can you reproduce the error with VSCode or one of its distributions (like VSCodium)?

[VilikNakhshikyan]

Thanks for the response.

I’d like to clarify that this does not appear to be an issue on the VS Code side. The same workspace and network-mounted path work correctly in VS Code.

The problem started after updating the Theia version. Before the update, external file changes on network paths were detected correctly.

Please let me know if additional logs or reproduction steps would help.

[msujew]

Thanks for the info. Possibly a faulty update of our dependencies. @ndoschek Did we update our @parcel/watcher dependency recently?

[ndoschek]

Hi, no, we haven't updated this dependency for a while. We're currently using version 2.5.1, which appears to be the latest: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@parcel/watcher?activeTab=versions
Afaics, we've been using this version since March this year.

[VilikNakhshikyan]

Thanks for the response. I found that Theia switched from nsfw to @parcel/watcher (v2.5.0) in Theia 1.55.0 (Oct 8, 2024).
The file watching issue appeared after upgrading from Theia 1.46.1 to 1.62.2, which includes this migration.