Re: Query about .xsession-errors file
On 10/09/2014, Chris Bannister <cbannister@slingshot.co.nz> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 12:36:42AM +0800, Bret Busby wrote:
>> Before seeing the above message, after someone previously saying that
>> deleting the file would not cause any (extra) problems, but would not
>> free up disc space, I deleted the file, then ran "Empty Trash Can",
>> but, no disc space was freed, then, subsequently, I observed that a
>> new file had been created;
>> .xsession-errors.old
>> with a size of about 33kB, and so I overwrote that, as described
>> above, and that reduced its size to zero, but, I now do not have the
>> original file with which to do that, and, I have about 750MB of
>> missing disc space.
>>
>> I have had to move files off the HDD, to make it usable (it does not
>> work with no free space, which is what the file did to it).
>>
>> Does a way exist, for me to reclaim the vanished disc space, without
>> having to reboot the computer?
>
> So you are saying that with the .xsession-errors at zero size hasn't
> reclaimed the disk space?
>
> What does df -h show?
>
I think that the problem has now been disappeared.
A number of things have happened since (I think that it is since) I
last posted about this problem, which, I believe, render the df -h
output that would be produced now, inapplicable to the problem as it
was.
One of those things, is that, in further investigating the problem of
having run out of disc space, and the progressive consumption of the
disc space, in examining the files in my home directory, in order of
"Date modified, including hidden files, I found that .opera/logs
contained 47647 files, and thence, took up about 5.5GB of disc space,
and, the directory seemed to contain only files of the name
crash<timestamp><0..9>.txt, which appeared to be redundant (some being
from 2012), so I removed all of the files in that directory, then,
emptied the trash, and, that all took a while (an hour or so, I
think), and it freed up 5.5GB of space in my /home partition.
Another thing that happened, is in relation to the xsyetm-errors file, itself.
I think that I had mentioned, previously, that, upon my deleting that
file, whilst the space was not freed, a new file appeared;
xsystem-errors.old, which got up to about 33kB, and then it went back
down to zero. That file was described, in the Type column of File
Browser, as a backup file.
So, I thought, in the context of what had been said, about open
applications that had been using the xsystem-errors file, not
releasing it, after it had been deleted, so it still existed, but was
invisible to the user, I simply renamed the xsystem-errors.old file,
to xsystem-errors (deleted the file extension .old), to find whether
that would fix the problem.
After a few hours sleep, when I checked the system, during daylight
hours, the free space now shows as 6.1GB.
So, I believe (unttil and unless, advised otherwise) that the
deleteing the file (which did not free up the disc space, in itself),
and then, renaming the xsystem-errors.old file, to xsystem-errors,
appears to have disappeared the problem, which, if I had known
earlier, could perhaps have been accomplished by the command ">
xsystem-errors", which, I assume, would have had the same effect.
One of the things that could have helped, and, I have raised the
suggestion on the LTS list (I have no idea, whether so doing, was
appropriate), regarding the .opera/logs directory, is for the File
Browser, in the Size column, to include the space used by each of the
directories listed, rather than just the number of items contained, in
each of the directories listed, in the Size column.
I raised the suggestion on that list, as the File Browser is part (I
believe) of GNOME2 (which has been abandoned by the GNOME people)
running on Debian 6.
I have no idea whether anyone on that list, is maintaining GNOME2, or,
especially, the File Browser of GNOME2, and thence, whether it could
be implemented for this operating system, but, I believe that it is
something that could help with system administration, expecially, when
disc space is found to progressively be consumed without knowing why
it is progressively being consumed.
--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............
"So once you do know what the question actually is,
you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
A Trilogy In Four Parts",
written by Douglas Adams,
published by Pan Books, 1992
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