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Re: Debug output etc, cluttering the terminal



Hi,

On Sonntag, 15. August 2010, brian m. carlson wrote:
> The Unix tradition is for programs to run silently unless there's a
> problem.  [...]
>
> I have no problem with programs taking an environment variable or a
> command line option in order to produce debugging output, but it
> shouldn't be the default.  

Amen.

> When you run these programs outside of a 
> terminal, the output goes to .xsession-errors.  Logging a lot of useless
> debugging information makes finding actual problems in .xsession-errors
> a lot less likely.

That, and it also fills up the homedirectory (and iceweasel+flash does this 
rather quickly). In environments where home is limited to something low as 
one or two GB (which is a reallife example as there were a lot of of 
homedirectories and they should be backuped) this leads to a denial of 
service, home is full and the user cant log in.

IIRC we've used rm'ing .xsession-errors on login as a workaround. Which is as 
useful for debugging as linking it to /dev/null would be.

So I'm all for a policy demanding silent output as default. 


cheers,
	Holger

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