Bug#351166: size of .xsession-errors should be limited

[Ernest Adrogué <nfdisco@gmail.com>]

Package: x11-common
Version: 1:7.7+5
Followup-For: Bug #351166

Hi,

the problem seems to be that the default X session script redirects both
standard output and standard error to .xsession-errors, when it really
should only redirect standard error.

Imagine what happens when the user runs a program such as mplayer that
writes a lot to stdout because it updates its status line several times per
second.  All this data ends up in .xsession-errors, which gets very large
very quickly.  This kind of output doesn't belong into a log file.

Please, consider changing the following line from the Xsession script

exec >>"$ERRFILE" 2>&1

into:

exec 2>>"$ERRFILE" >/dev/null

I think that this would fix the issue.

Regards.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: jessie/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 3.12-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=ca_ES.utf8, LC_CTYPE=ca_ES.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages x11-common depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]  1.5.52
ii  lsb-base               4.1+Debian12

x11-common recommends no packages.

x11-common suggests no packages.

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/X11/Xsession changed:
set -e
PROGNAME=Xsession
message () {
  # pretty-print messages of arbitrary length; use xmessage if it
  # is available and $DISPLAY is set
  MESSAGE="$PROGNAME: $*"
  echo "$MESSAGE" | fold -s -w ${COLUMNS:-80} >&2
  if [ -n "$DISPLAY" ] && which xmessage > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo "$MESSAGE" | fold -s -w ${COLUMNS:-80} | xmessage -center -file -
  fi
}
message_nonl () {
  # pretty-print messages of arbitrary length (no trailing newline); use
  # xmessage if it is available and $DISPLAY is set
  MESSAGE="$PROGNAME: $*"
  echo -n "$MESSAGE" | fold -s -w ${COLUMNS:-80} >&2;
  if [ -n "$DISPLAY" ] && which xmessage > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo -n "$MESSAGE" | fold -s -w ${COLUMNS:-80} | xmessage -center -file -
  fi
}
errormsg () {
  # exit script with error
  message "$*"
  exit 1
}
internal_errormsg () {
  # exit script with error; essentially a "THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN" message
  # One big call to message() for the sake of xmessage; if we had two then
  # the user would have dismissed the error we want reported before seeing the
  # request to report it.
  errormsg "$*" \
           "Please report the installed version of the \"x11-common\"" \
           "package and the complete text of this error message to" \
           "<debian-x@lists.debian.org>."
}
OPTIONFILE=/etc/X11/Xsession.options
SYSRESOURCES=/etc/X11/Xresources
USRRESOURCES=$HOME/.Xresources
SYSSESSIONDIR=/etc/X11/Xsession.d
USERXSESSION=$HOME/.xsession
USERXSESSIONRC=$HOME/.xsessionrc
ALTUSERXSESSION=$HOME/.Xsession
ERRFILE=$HOME/.xsession-errors
if (umask 077 && touch "$ERRFILE") 2> /dev/null && [ -w "$ERRFILE" ] &&
  [ ! -L "$ERRFILE" ]; then
  chmod 600 "$ERRFILE"
elif ERRFILE=$(tempfile 2> /dev/null); then
  if ! ln -sf "$ERRFILE" "${TMPDIR:=/tmp}/xsession-$USER"; then
    message "warning: unable to symlink \"$TMPDIR/xsession-$USER\" to" \
             "\"$ERRFILE\"; look for session log/errors in" \
             "\"$TMPDIR/xsession-$USER\"."
  fi
else
  errormsg "unable to create X session log/error file; aborting."
fi
exec 2>>"$ERRFILE" >/dev/null
echo "$PROGNAME: X session started for $LOGNAME at $(date)"
if [ ! -d "$SYSSESSIONDIR" ]; then
  errormsg "no \"$SYSSESSIONDIR\" directory found; aborting."
fi
WRITE_TEST=$(tempfile)
if ! echo "*" >>"$WRITE_TEST"; then
  message "warning: unable to write to ${WRITE_TEST%/*}; X session may exit" \
          "with an error"
fi
rm -f "$WRITE_TEST"
SESSIONFILES=$(run-parts --list $SYSSESSIONDIR)
if [ -n "$SESSIONFILES" ]; then
  set +e
  for SESSIONFILE in $SESSIONFILES; do
    . $SESSIONFILE
  done
  set -e
fi
exit 0


-- debconf information:
  x11-common/xwrapper/allowed_users: Console Users Only
  x11-common/xwrapper/actual_allowed_users: console