Variety writes a lot of info to syslog, is there a way to stop the output?

After tonight's kernel upgrade - Linux localhost 4.4.0-36-generic #55-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 11 18:01:55 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux the above issue has been fixed.

Last night after booting into the 4.4.0-36 kernel the above issues stopped. This morning after testing to see if I can log into any other window managers yet (which failed) I had to restart the system. Now all this information is again being written to syslog

Aug 30 08:13:00 localhost gnome-session[3989]: INFO: 2016-08-30 08:13:00,623: build_imagemagick_clock_cmd() 'Applying clock filter: -density 100 -font `fc-match -f '%{file[0]}' 'Ubuntu Condensed:,:70'` -pointsize 70 -gravity SouthEast -fill '#00000044' -annotate 0x0+58+108 '08:13' -fill white -annotate 0x0+60+110 '08:13' -font `fc-match -f '%{file[0]}' 'Ubuntu Condensed:,:30'` -pointsize 30 -fill '#00000044' -annotate 0x0+58+58 'Tuesday, August 30' -fill white -annotate 0x0+60+60 'Tuesday, August 30''
Aug 30 08:13:00 localhost gnome-session[3989]: INFO: 2016-08-30 08:13:00,623: build_imagemagick_clock_cmd() 'ImageMagick clock cmd: convert "/home/chris/Wallpaper/Decampment_by_taenaron.jpg" -scale 1680x1050^ -density 100 -font `fc-match -f '%{file[0]}' 'Ubuntu Condensed:,:70'` -pointsize 70 -gravity SouthEast -fill '#00000044' -annotate 0x0+58+108 '08:13' -fill white -annotate 0x0+60+110 '08:13' -font `fc-match -f '%{file[0]}' 'Ubuntu Condensed:,:30'` -pointsize 30 -fill '#00000044' -annotate 0x0+58+58 'Tuesday, August 30' -fill white -annotate 0x0+60+60 'Tuesday, August 30' "/home/chris/.config/variety/wallpaper/wallpaper-clock-d889686d4a596b3511ee20bae217db0f.jpg"'
Aug 30 08:13:00 localhost gnome-session[3989]: INFO: 2016-08-30 08:13:00,848: update_indicator() 'Setting file info to: /home/chris/Wallpaper/Decampment_by_taenaron.jpg'

I've managed to stop the output to syslog by disabling the clock in preferences however I want to use the clock. Also every time a wallpaper is changed this is being written to syslog

Aug 30 11:07:21 localhost gnome-session[3989]: INFO: 2016-08-30 11:07:21,922: regular_change_thread() 'regular_change changes wallpaper'
Aug 30 11:07:21 localhost gnome-session[3989]: INFO: 2016-08-30 11:07:21,941: set_wallpaper() 'Calling set_wallpaper with /home/chris/Wallpaper/SwiftLulinDSS_comp.jpg'
Aug 30 11:07:21 localhost gnome-session[3989]: INFO: 2016-08-30 11:07:21,941: prepare_thread() 'Prepared buffer contains 11 images'
Aug 30 11:07:21 localhost gnome-session[3989]: INFO: 2016-08-30 11:07:21,942: do_set_wp() 'Calling do_set_wp with /home/chris/Wallpaper/SwiftLulinDSS_comp.jpg, time: 1472573241.94'
Aug 30 11:07:21 localhost gnome-session[3989]: INFO: 2016-08-30 11:07:21,966: update_indicator() 'Setting file info to: /home/chris/Wallpaper/SwiftLulinDSS_comp.jpg'

Is there a way to stop this?

This is Variety's normal log output which normally goes to ~/.config/variety/variety.log. I'm not sure why it ends in your syslog. Once I get back to my Linux machine I'll check whether this is the usual behavior or something specific to your machine.

I did some checking Peter and ~/.config/variety/variety.log is also being written to with the same information. Since 18:05 yesterday the 30th the log has grown to almost 3mb in size. It's now 08:35 on the 31st.

Yes, I prefer that log to be verbose, this helps a lot in debugging problems that I cannot reproduce locally. It is reset on every restart of Variety so it won't grow forever and fill your disk, unless Variety runs for years without restarts (not probable on a desktop macine). Wilting to syslog is unexpected though. I'm on a work trip and will check this once I get back home.

Thanks Peter, I'll make sure then that I restart it daily.

On Wed, 2016-08-31 at 14:02 +0000, Peter Levi wrote:
> Your question #371983 on Variety changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/variety/+question/371983
>
> Peter Levi posted a new comment:
> Yes, I prefer that log to be verbose, this helps a lot in debugging
> problems that I cannot reproduce locally.  It is reset on every
> restart
> of Variety so it won't grow forever and fill your disk, unless
> Variety
> runs for years without restarts (not probable on a desktop macine).
> Wilting to syslog is unexpected though.  I'm on a work trip and will
> check this once I get back home.
>

Thanks Peter, I've also discovered that if Variety is running with the
clock, downloading from the internet and showing downloaded quotes that
after about 3hrs or so the system will slow down and even freeze. Once
it comes out of the freeze some process will invoke oom and will close
either Evolution or Firefox. If I have Variety running as only a
wallpaper changer no issues are found. Here are links to some syslog
entries, memory information and information from running top. Please
ask if you need me to do anything to figure out why Variety is causing
this. Additionally the date/time I installed Variety was:

Start-Date: 2016-08-28  21:33:57
Commandline: apt-get install variety

and the first oom issue was at 03:24am on the 29th.

https://pastebin.com/Hf30hEE9
https://pastebin.com/89T2EyaB
https://pastebin.com/eWVA27JK
https://pastebin.com/3GcJU7VA
https://pastebin.com/eMTLsVsG
https://pastebin.com/8BBn27Tk
https://pastebin.com/EduBvYTK
https://pastebin.com/HKbiB3Ud
https://pastebin.com/PqCNRkD0
https://pastebin.com/SeS61UA6
https://pastebin.com/3y7DP4Jq
https://pastebin.com/05hVgtJK
https://pastebin.com/SFZNHwkE

I ran memtest for 11+hrs the other night when this started and there
were no errors noted. Yesterday I stopped Variety completely at 3:24pm
and there were no oom problems all night. I restarted it at this
morning at 8:30am with just the wallpaper changer. At 3:25pm today I
started up the clock and the quotes. At 3:48pm I got an oom error
during this the system froze seconds not running on the upper taskbar
and mouse cursor would not move. At 3:50pm I stopped the quotes and
when loading some files in Nautilus the system again slowed down and
froze for a few seconds but not as long as before. At 4:07pm I disabled
the clock and have just the wallpaper changer running. So far I've see
not issues at all.

Chris

--
Chris
KeyID 0xE372A7DA98E6705C
31.11972; -97.90167 (Elev. 1092 ft)
19:32:16 up 2 days, 11:38, 1 user, load average: 1.27, 0.59, 0.38
Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS, kernel 4.4.0-36-generic #55-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 11 18:01:55 UTC 2016

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

I cannot confirm the behavior regarding writing to the syslog. On my machine (fairly out-of-the-box Ubuntu 14.04), this does not happen.

I thought I'd check the new version this morning to see if the oom issue had been fixed as well as what I see a lot of data being written to syslog. Neither seems to have been fixed.

First, at 9:35am CDT I started the clock and the quotes, not downloading any wallpaper however I was using the changer option, everything from syslog is here - https://pastebin.com/sTASbdvd

I forgot to add here is the version I have running

chris@localhost:/var/log$ apt-cache policy variety
variety:
  Installed: 0.6.2-0~572~201609232248~ubuntu16.04.1
  Candidate: 0.6.2-0~572~201609232248~ubuntu16.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 0.6.2-0~572~201609232248~ubuntu16.04.1 500
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/peterlevi/ppa/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/peterlevi/ppa/ubuntu xenial/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     0.6.0-1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe amd64 Packages
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe i386 Packages

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.