pmmgr eating CPU, continuously logging errors to pmmgr.log

[Nathaniel W. Turner]

The pmmgr process on my system is constantly using 36% or so CPU time, and contantly logging messages like those below to /var/log/pcp/pmmgr/pmmgr.log (which is 2 GB as of this writing, after less than a day since upgrade to trusty).

Log finished Thu Jan 23 13:49:15 2014
/bin/mkdir: cannot create directory '/var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop': Permission denied
pmieconf: error - cannot write file /var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop/config.pmie: No such file or directory
[Thu Jan 23 13:49:15] pmmgr(12079/2184): /etc/pcp/pmmgr: system(/usr/bin/pmieconf -F -c -f /var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop/config.pmie) failed: rc=256
touch: cannot touch '/var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop/config.pmlogger': No such file or directory
[Thu Jan 23 13:49:15] pmmgr(12079/2182): /etc/pcp/pmmgr: system(/usr/lib/pcp/bin/pmlogconf -c -r -h local: /var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop/config.pmlogger >/dev/null) failed: rc=256
pmie: cannot open log "/var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop/pmie.log" for writing : No such file or directory
Log for pmie on nturner-desktop started Thu Jan 23 13:49:15 2014

pmie: cannot find realpath for log /var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop/pmie.log: No such file or directory

Log finished Thu Jan 23 13:49:15 2014
pmlogger: cannot open log "/var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop/pmlogger.log" for writing : No such file or directory
Log for pmlogger on nturner-desktop started Thu Jan 23 13:49:15 2014

pmlogger: Warning: log file (/var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop/pmlogger.log) creation failed
pmlogger: Cannot open config file "/var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop/config.pmlogger": No such file or directory

Log finished Thu Jan 23 13:49:15 2014
/bin/mkdir: cannot create directory '/var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop': Permission denied
pmieconf: error - cannot write file /var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop/config.pmie: No such file or directory
[Thu Jan 23 13:49:15] pmmgr(12079/2206): /etc/pcp/pmmgr: system(/usr/bin/pmieconf -F -c -f /var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop/config.pmie) failed: rc=256
pmie: cannot open log "/var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop/pmie.log" for writing : No such file or directory
Log for pmie on nturner-desktop started Thu Jan 23 13:49:15 2014

pmie: cannot find realpath for log /var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop/pmie.log: No such file or directory

Log finished Thu Jan 23 13:49:15 2014
/bin/mkdir: cannot create directory '/var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop': Permission denied
pmieconf: error - cannot write file /var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop/config.pmie: No such file or directory
[Thu Jan 23 13:49:15] pmmgr(12079/2211): /etc/pcp/pmmgr: system(/usr/bin/pmieconf -F -c -f /var/log/pcp/pmmgr/nturner-desktop/config.pmie) failed: rc=256

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: pcp 3.8.10ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-5.20-generic 3.13.0
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-5-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.13.1-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Jan 23 13:45:46 2014
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/pcp/bin/pmmgr
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=linux
 PATH=(custom, no user)
SourcePackage: pcp
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-01-23 (0 days ago)

[Frank Ch. Eigler (fche)]

The problem is that the /var/log/pcp/pmmgr directory is not created with proper permissions.
Run

    # chown pcp:pcp /var/log/pcp/pmmgr

and it will start working.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Eric Desrochers (slashd)]

This bug is fix :

# pcp source package :
x/pcp-3.10.8build1/debian/pcp-manager.postinst:chown pcp:pcp /var/log/pcp/pmmgr
y/pcp-3.10.8build1/debian/pcp-manager.postinst:chown pcp:pcp /var/log/pcp/pmmgr
z/pcp-3.11.7build1/debian/pcp-manager.postinst:chown pcp:pcp /var/log/pcp/pmmgr

# Install pcp
 - sudo apt-get update
 - sudo apt-get install pcp pcp-manager

# Validation
# /var/log/pcp/pmmgr/ now does have the proper ownership as explained in comment #2

ls -ald /var/log/pcp/pmmgr/
drwxrwxr-x 3 pcp pcp 4096 Jun 21 09:17 /var/log/pcp/pmmgr/