Comment 0 for bug 904835

notify-osd append each notify message to a log in .cache/notify-osd.log. Looking at the code I suspect this is for debugging purposes only, however, I don't seem to have debug turned on and it is still appending data to the log. I have examined this under the current Oneiric installation (with the current updates) and also today's Precise ISO image (15th Dec 2011).

This is problematic for several reasons:

1. I believe the logging is for debugging purposes only, yet it seems to be enabled and I'm using a standard release image

2. Each notify-osd messages causes writes to the log which causes extra unwanted Hard Disk Drive (HDD) activity. On an idle machine running on battery power this contributes to drive wakeup/write/power-down cycles which wastes power and reduces battery life.

3. Unnecessary writes to this debug log causes unnecessary HDD spinup/down cycles which reduces the lifetime of spinning media as well as for SSDs

4. On busy feeds (e.g. twitter, facebook etc) the extra logging overhead is large and the can be quite active.

Since this log seems only useful for debug purposes it should be inhibited as default.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: notify-osd 0.9.32-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-4.10-generic 3.2.0-rc5
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-4-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.90-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Dec 15 16:17:51 2011
GtkTheme: Ambiance
IconTheme: ubuntu-mono-dark
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha amd64 (20111215)
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0a5c:217f Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth Controller
MachineType: LENOVO 4287CTO
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-generic root=UUID=40f4b6f2-3c98-46f1-96ee-4a7af137bbf6 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.6+7ubuntu7
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.11-0ubuntu4
 libdrm2 2.4.27-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.15.901-1ubuntu4
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20110811.g93fc084-0ubuntu1
SourcePackage: notify-osd
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
WindowManager: No value set for `/desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager'
dmi.bios.date: 10/18/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 8DET54WW (1.24 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 4287CTO
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr8DET54WW(1.24):bd10/18/2011:svnLENOVO:pn4287CTO:pvrThinkPadX220:rvnLENOVO:rn4287CTO:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 4287CTO
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X220
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory