Bug#276545: Xsession: $ERRFILE ($HOME/.xsession-errors) grows without bound

["Jeff Sheinberg" <jeff@bsrd.net>]

Branden Robinson writes:
 > severity 276545 wishlist
 > retitle 276545 xfree86-common: badly-behaved X clients fill $HOME/.xsession-errors with crap, and this is your package's fault
 > tag 276545 + wontfix
 > thanks
 > 
 > On Thu, Oct 14, 2004 at 03:13:48PM -0400, Jeff Sheinberg wrote:
 > > Package: xfree86-common
 > > Version: 4.3.0.dfsg.1-8
 > > Severity: normal
 > > 
 > > Hi,
 > > 
 > > Since the last upgrade in sarge/testing, the $ERRFILE, nominally
 > > $HOME/.xsession-errors, grows without bound, since it is no longer
 > > being truncated.
 > > 
 > > I believe that this change is a mistake, however, controlling this
 > > behavior via a setting in the "/etc/X11/Xsession.options" file is
 > > certainly accceptable to me.
 > 
 > I'm not going to fix this for the reasons I outlined in a discussion[1]
 > with Chris Waters back in July.
 > 
 > Quoting:
 > 
 >   For the time being, I do not agree.
 > 
 >   Justification #1: Xsession is a conffile and anybody who's annoyed by this
 >   can apply your patch or a similar one themselves.
 > 
 >   Justification #2: I think programs and libraries -- especially GTK+ and Qt
 >   and their dependent hordes -- need to be broken of the philosophy that
 >   .xsession-errors is just another name for /dev/null.  Anything that spews
 >   gouts of garbage to the file needs a bug filed against it, and I strongly
 >   encourage you to do so.
 > 
 >   I didn't get the memo that said .xsession-errors is supposed to be useless,
 >   and I resent the Desktop Movement for trying to make it thus.
 > 
 > [1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2004/07/msg00068.html
 > 
 > -- 
 > G. Branden Robinson                |    Men use thought only to justify
 > Debian GNU/Linux                   |    their wrong doings, and speech only
 > branden@debian.org                 |    to conceal their thoughts.
 > http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |    -- Voltaire

Branden,

I disagree with you here, because the original bug submission has
nothing whatsoever to do with "badly-behaved X clients".

I stand by my assertion that the $ERRFILE grows without bound, and
therefore, it should probably be controlled by an option in the
/etc/X11/Xsession.options file.

Thanks,
-- 
Jeff Sheinberg