Re: The .xsession-errors problem
Hi.
On Mon, Oct 26, 2020 at 06:35:45PM +0200, Teemu Likonen wrote:
> It seems that ~/.xsession-errors file can still grow to infinity in
> size. Sometimes it grows really fast. This is nothing new: we have all
> seen it and talked about it. What do you do to maintain this file?
>
> - Do you just delete it when you happen to notice it's too big?
I used custom logrotate config, and then it dawned on me (see below).
> - Do you configure some rotating system, perhaps with logrotate(8)?
> (Why doesn't Debian have this automatically?)
For Debian, it may work. For RHEL, for instance, such logrotate policy
would be denied by SELinux.
That, and inviting running-as-root logrotate to cleanup user files opens
all kinds of trouble.
> - Do you add it to your backup system's ignore list so that a
> potentially big file doesn't fill your backups?
Nope, there's no need to.
> - What do Debian documentation and faq lists teach about maintaining
> this potentially huge file?
Prevent such writes in the first place. Hack /etc/X11/Xsession, replace
logging to a file to logging to syslog. A simple one-liner will do:
exec 1> >(/usr/bin/logger -e -t xsession-$USER -p user.notice) 2>&1
If you don't need all these extra messages in /var/log/messages - just
write a simple rsyslogd filter.
> - Why is it normal that in Debian (and GNU/Linux) you need to manually
> delete a hidden file to keep it from filling your hard disks?
I fail to see the difference between .xsession-errors and some user-run
(cr)application logfile. Both can fill all the filesystem that you're
throwing at it.
Reco
Reply to: