Flood of DEBUG messages in .xsession-errors

[VS]

Binary package hint: gnome-session

gnome-session appears to be spewing debug messages into .xsession-errors. Should not DEBUG messages be disabled in a final release?

The following results are after four days of uptime (of which at least half the time was spent in suspend):
~$ uptime
 14:55:44 up 4 days, 4:37, 3 users, load average: 0.16, 0.29, 0.27

To illustrate the problem, I counted the number of lines like this:
~$ grep DEBUG .xsession-errors | grep gnome-session | wc -l
12579

~$ grep DEBUG .xsession-errors | grep gnome-session | wc --bytes
1531338

That is almost 1.5MB.

Because of #583911, my .xsession-errors file is almost 15 MB, so the attached file was produced as follows:

~$ grep -v flagvector .xsession-errors > xsession-report

I was not sure whether I should reopen #268733 or if this is a separate bug, so reporting as a new bug for now.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: gnome-session 2.32.0-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-23.41-generic-pae 2.6.35.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-23-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Dec 5 14:47:31 2010
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=nb_NO:nb:no_NO:no:nn_NO:nn:en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=nb_NO.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-session

[Dan Christensen (jdc)]

I can confirm this in maverick i386. It makes it hard to see legitimate log messages in .xsession-errors.

I've got 20000 lines in under 4 days of uptime.

[VS (storvann)]

A simple "workaround" (if I can call it that) for this issue is to symlink .xsession-errors to /dev/null, but you have to do it each time you log in:
rm .xsession-errors && ln -s /dev/null .xsession-errors

This should be an easy issue to fix - just recompile the package with debug messages disabled. Can anyone official comment on this? When can we expect a fix?

[Sam_ (and-sam)]

Still the case in Natty e.g. zeitgeist flood or by opening any window.

** (process:18693): DEBUG: zeitgeist-datahub.vala:174: Inserting 1 events
** (<unknown>:18677): DEBUG: MaximizeIfBigEnough: window mapped and already maximized, just undecorate
** (process:18693): DEBUG: zeitgeist-datahub.vala:174: Inserting 1 events
** (<unknown>:18677): DEBUG: MaximizeIfBigEnough: Gedit window size doesn't fit
** (process:18693): DEBUG: zeitgeist-datahub.vala:174: Inserting 1 events
** (process:18693): DEBUG: zeitgeist-datahub.vala:174: Inserting 1 events
** (process:18693): DEBUG: zeitgeist-datahub.vala:174: Inserting 1 events
** (process:18693): DEBUG: zeitgeist-datahub.vala:174: Inserting 1 events
** (process:18693): DEBUG: desktop-launch-listener.vala:118
** (<unknown>:18677): DEBUG: MaximizeIfBigEnough: Gedit window size doesn't fit
** (<unknown>:18677): DEBUG: MaximizeIfBigEnough: Ccsm window size doesn't fit

## Four hours (depending on number of events)
$ grep DEBUG .xsession-errors | grep zeitgeist | wc -l
58
$ grep DEBUG .xsession-errors | wc -l
252

Workaround.
I just clear it when the file gets about 1 MB:
$ > .xsession-errors

[Sam_ (and-sam)]

zeitgeist debug spam was fixed in Precise bug 906451.

[dino99 (9d9)]

That version is no more supported

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Sorry that this bug report could not be resolved before the Ubuntu version expired. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since then, and the bug may have been fixed. If you still have the problem with a current version of Ubuntu, please reopen this report.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for gnome-session (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]