gnome-terminal writes to /tmp on every line of output

[Roman Yepishev]

STR:

1. Start xterm
2. Run "python -mpyinotify /tmp"
3. Start gnome-terminal.
4. Run some command like ls

Actual Results:

Observe a ton of IN_MODIFY lines such as
<Event dir=False mask=0x2 maskname=IN_MODIFY name=vteD7DX2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vteD7DX2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x2 maskname=IN_MODIFY name=vte1XDX2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vte1XDX2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x2 maskname=IN_MODIFY name=vte72DX2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vte72DX2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x2 maskname=IN_MODIFY name=vteD7DX2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vteD7DX2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x2 maskname=IN_MODIFY name=vte1XDX2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vte1XDX2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x2 maskname=IN_MODIFY name=vteD7DX2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vteD7DX2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x2 maskname=IN_MODIFY name=vte1XDX2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vte1XDX2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x2 maskname=IN_MODIFY name=vte72DX2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vte72DX2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x2 maskname=IN_MODIFY name=vteD7DX2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vteD7DX2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x2 maskname=IN_MODIFY name=vte1XDX2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vte1XDX2V wd=1 >

Or, when idle -
<Event dir=False mask=0x1 maskname=IN_ACCESS name=vteGFOF2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vteGFOF2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x1 maskname=IN_ACCESS name=vteI7NF2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vteI7NF2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x1 maskname=IN_ACCESS name=vteVCOF2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vteVCOF2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x1 maskname=IN_ACCESS name=vteGFOF2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vteGFOF2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x1 maskname=IN_ACCESS name=vteI7NF2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vteI7NF2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x1 maskname=IN_ACCESS name=vteVCOF2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vteVCOF2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x1 maskname=IN_ACCESS name=vteGFOF2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vteGFOF2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x1 maskname=IN_ACCESS name=vteI7NF2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vteI7NF2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x1 maskname=IN_ACCESS name=vteVCOF2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vteVCOF2V wd=1 >
<Event dir=False mask=0x1 maskname=IN_ACCESS name=vteGFOF2V path=/tmp pathname=/tmp/vteGFOF2V wd=1 >

This looks like vte code storing something. According to this question - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1830432,
"Sometimes vte creates temporary files which contains a copy of the whole scrollback buffer, [...]".

Expected results:
Nothing is being written to this dir at this rate by gnome-terminal.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: gnome-terminal 3.0.1-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.19-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Oct 3 09:55:29 2011
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
SourcePackage: gnome-terminal
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-08-30 (33 days ago)

[Roman Yepishev (rye)]

src/vtestream-file.h:

static inline void
_vte_file_stream_ensure_fd0 (VteFileStream *stream)
{
        gint fd;
        gchar *file_name;
        if (G_LIKELY (stream->fd[0]))
                return;

        fd = g_file_open_tmp ("vteXXXXXX", &file_name, NULL);
        if (fd != -1) {
                unlink (file_name);
                g_free (file_name);
        }

        stream->fd[0] = dup (fd); /* we do the dup to make sure ->fd[0] is not 0 */

        close (fd);
}

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

this looks like bug https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=631685 ; could you please share your thoughts there as well? Thanks.

[Egmont Koblinger (egmont-gmail)]

Fyi: vte-0.34.9 will add caching (https://git.gnome.org/browse/vte/commit/?h=vte-0-34&id=b959b86). The amount of data written is still the same, but batched up in larger chunks.

[Bryce Nesbitt (bryce2)]

Probably related, here's a small sample as captured by the new "fatrace --filter W" utility on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS:

09:35:01.577176 gnome-terminal(8923): RW /tmp/#132358 (deleted)
09:35:01.588323 gnome-terminal(8923): W /tmp/#132359 (deleted)
09:35:01.588323 gnome-terminal(8923): RW /tmp/#132359 (deleted)
09:35:01.588323 gnome-terminal(8923): W /tmp/#132358 (deleted)
09:35:01.588323 gnome-terminal(8923): RW /tmp/#132358 (deleted)
09:35:01.604411 gnome-terminal(8923): W /tmp/#132359 (deleted)
09:35:01.604411 gnome-terminal(8923): RW /tmp/#132359 (deleted)
09:35:01.604411 gnome-terminal(8923): W /tmp/#132358 (deleted)
09:35:01.604411 gnome-terminal(8923): RW /tmp/#132358 (deleted)
09:35:01.606859 bash(12220): CW /home/bnesbitt/.bash_history
09:35:01.606859 bash(12220): RCWO /home/bnesbitt/.bash_history
09:35:01.610768 gnome-terminal(8923): CW /tmp/#132355 (deleted)
09:35:01.610768 gnome-terminal(8923): CW /tmp/#132355 (deleted)
09:35:01.610856 gnome-terminal(8923): CW /tmp/#132356 (deleted)
09:35:01.610856 gnome-terminal(8923): CW /tmp/#132356 (deleted)
09:35:01.636285 gnome-terminal(8923): W /tmp/#132359 (deleted)
09:35:01.636285 gnome-terminal(8923): RW /tmp/#132359 (deleted)
09:35:01.636285 gnome-terminal(8923): W /tmp/#132358 (deleted)
09:35:01.636285 gnome-terminal(8923): RW /tmp/#132358 (deleted)
09:35:01.666355 gnome-terminal(8923): W /tmp/#132359 (deleted)
09:35:01.666355 gnome-terminal(8923): RW /tmp/#132359 (deleted)
09:35:01.666355 gnome-terminal(8923): W /tmp/#132358 (deleted)
09:35:01.666355 gnome-terminal(8923): RW /tmp/#132358 (deleted)
09:35:01.677547 gnome-terminal(8923): W /tmp/#132359 (deleted)
09:35:01.677547 gnome-terminal(8923): RW /tmp/#132359 (deleted)
09:35:01.677547 gnome-terminal(8923): W /tmp/#132358 (deleted)
09:35:01.677547 gnome-terminal(8923): RW /tmp/#132358 (deleted)