Request for explanation of error message

[Bret Busby]

On 29/07/2019, Mike Marchywka <marchywka at hotmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Jul 28, 2019 at 03:22:06PM -0400, Paul Smith wrote:
>> On Mon, 2019-07-29 at 02:51 +0800, Bret Busby wrote:
>> > Whatever is happeing, I now have
>> >
>> > "
>> > bret at bret-MD34045-2521:~$ ls -l /var/log/lightdm/x*.*
>> > -rw------- 1 root root 64086904832 Jul 29 02:49 /var/log/lightdm/x-0.log
>> > "
>> >
>> > and no space left on the / partition.
>> >
>> > So, whatever is happening, the file, as it stands, has to be deleted,
>> > as it has rendered the system unusable.
>>
>> I haven't been following this thread, but I mean, have you looked at
>> the contents of that file to see what it says?
>>
>> You can view the last 20 lines, for example, by opening a terminal
>> window and running:
>>
>>   tail -n20 /var/log/lightdm/x-0.log
>>
>> It could be that it's spewing errors or warnings to that file, which
>> could lead you to a poorly-behaving program on your system or warn you
>> about some hardware or configuration issue.
>>
>> I don't use lightdm (I use standard gdm) so I can't say for sure but
>> it's possible simply deleting that file won't solve your disk space
>> problem: if lightdm keeps the file open to write to it then removing it
>> via "sudo rm -f /var/log/lightdm/x-0.log" won't actually free the disk
>> space: on POSIX systems disk space is only cleaned up when there are no
>> more references to the file.  If you try to delete it and you're still
>> out of space you'll have to at least log out and log back in to restart
>> the display manager, and/or possibly kill the process.
>
>  I keep suggesting to find an entire loop to post- he posted last
> few lines before but it may help to get an entire period or go back
> to first logfile that seemed too big and start there too.
> Although deleting it and catching the new one starting to fill
> may be easier. One of problems was inability to get a /tmp/x-lock or
> something similar that may have simple explanation.
>

I have previously posted, a number of times, a copy of a repeating
error that loops.

>
> That is a good point though- I remember with the nullmailer problem
> I had to do something like a service restart but yeah you should be able
> to see it with "lsof | grep filename " although fixing the problem
> may require more drastic action anyway or at least a restart to
> change a configuration.
>
>
>
>>
>> In general those log files are for your information, for helping to
>> track down issues.  The system itself doesn't need them for proper
>> operation so if you need to delete them you should feel free to do so.
>> It won't break anything.
>>
>>
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>
> --
>
> mike marchywka
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> canton GA 30115
> USA, Earth
> marchywka at hotmail.com
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> ORCID: 0000-0001-9237-455X
>
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-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
 Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
 A Trilogy In Four Parts",
 written by Douglas Adams,
 published by Pan Books, 1992

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