Bug#777041: xbmc: unable to disable extensive debug logging

[Bálint Réczey]

Hi Jonathan,

2015-03-02 23:10 GMT+04:00 Jonathan McDowell <noodles at earth.li>:
> On Mon, Mar 02, 2015 at 07:27:21PM +0100, Bálint Réczey wrote:
>> 2015-02-04 11:00 GMT+01:00 Jonathan McDowell <noodles at earth.li>:
>> > I'm hoping I'm just missing something here, but the Debian XBMC packages
>> > do extensive debug logging out of the box, including logging every
>> > directory scanned for updates, even when there is no change, and logging
>> > several lines each time a key is pressed on the remote e.g:
>> >
>> > 09:52:25 T:140192028579744   DEBUG: Keyboard: scancode: 0x71, sym: 0x0114, unicode: 0x0000, modifier: 0x0
>> > 09:52:25 T:140192028579744   DEBUG: CAnnouncementManager - Announcement: OnScreensaverDeactivated from xbmc
>> > 09:52:25 T:140192028579744   DEBUG: GOT ANNOUNCEMENT, type: 4, from xbmc, message OnScreensaverDeactivated
>> > 09:52:25 T:140192028579744   DEBUG: OnKey: left (0xf082) pressed, screen saver/dpms woken up
>> > 09:52:26 T:140192028579744   DEBUG: ------ Window Deinit () ------
>> >
>> > I have set:
>> >
>> >     <debug>
>> >         <screenshotpath default="true"></screenshotpath>
>> >         <showloginfo default="true">false</showloginfo>
>> >     </debug>
>> >
>> > in ~xbmc/.xbmc/userdata/guisettings.xml and tried:
>> >
>> >         <loglevel hide="false">-1</loglevel>
>> >
>> > in ~xbmc/.xbmc/userdata/advancedsettings.xml as well, but I still see
>> > this debug output. Given that my XBMC box is on all the time and this
>> > logging serves little purpose I'd like to be able to tone it down to
>> > avoid the debug output (and I don't expect it to do this out of the bug
>> > even when the GUI is saying there's no debug enabled).
>>
>> The extensive logging is enabled during the build intentionally to
>> help users in debugging issues without recompiling the package.
>> IMO there is little harm done since if you don't have problems you
>> don't have to look at the logs.
>> If you are really worried about the logs accumulating you can even set
>> up a cron job to remove it periodically.
>>
>> Please check's Kodi's wiki for hints on changing logging, but if you
>> can't find a better solution there I probably can't help either:
>> http://kodi.wiki/view/Log_file/Advanced
>
> Here are my problems with this approach:
>
>  * There is no indication in the GUI that debug is enabled. The option
>    is greyed out. If debug was enabled by default but the GUI showed it
>    as enabled (and it could be disabled there) that would be much more
>    acceptable.
>
>  * A responsible package should be dealing with its log files in a
>    better fashion. Policy 10.8 says they should be in /var/log (probably
>    /var/log/xbmc/ for XBMC) and be rotated occasionally, ideally with
>    logrotate.
>
>  * The logging of each and every remote keypress is a security concern
>    as it means that password entry is recorded.
>
>  * It is not unreasonable to want to limit unnecessary logging output,
>    especially that which "can pretty much only be deciphered by a
>    developer or long time XBMC/Kodi power user"[0]
>
> Looking at my XBMC which was started less than 2 days ago and breaking
> down the log entry types I see:
>
>       9 WARNING:
>      78 ERROR:
>     320 INFO:
>     390 NOTICE:
>    7366 DEBUG:
>
> This debug output is considerable compared to the normal output. I
> understand the desire to have the debugging enabled by default to ease
> support, but the GUI configuration should be showing this is the case
> and it should be possible to turn it off.
I think the situation improved a lot with latest kodi packages. Could
you please test them?
Debugging is not enabled in debian/rules anymore by default.

Cheers,
Balint