JohnCoates
AerialLog.txt grows continuously, even when screensaver is not running?
Required information
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- Mac model: MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020)
- macOS version: Big Sur 11.6.5
- Monitor setup: Laptop screen primarily, sometimes have second monitor at work.
Also on I'm pretty sure the latest versions. Aerial companion 1.2, and screen saver 3.0.9.
Description of issue / Feature request
I had trouble trying to search the issues since this involves the AerialLog.txt file. I noticed the other day that even when nothing is running. The file just keeps growing and growing and growing. Even when debug mode is off, right along side the basic notifications that, for example, a video is being downloaded, we get a continuous stream of the following.
2022-04-23 22:23:31.990 : string : 22:23:31
2022-04-23 22:23:32.535 : string : 22:23:32
2022-04-23 22:23:32.538 : string : 22:23:32
2022-04-23 22:23:32.851 : string : 22:23:32
2022-04-23 22:23:32.853 : string : 22:23:32
2022-04-23 22:23:32.963 : string : 22:23:32
2022-04-23 22:23:32.967 : string : 22:23:32
2022-04-23 22:23:32.990 : string : 22:23:32
2022-04-23 22:23:32.992 : string : 22:23:32
2022-04-23 22:23:33.535 : string : 22:23:33
2022-04-23 22:23:33.538 : string : 22:23:33
2022-04-23 22:23:33.851 : string : 22:23:33
2022-04-23 22:23:33.854 : string : 22:23:33
2022-04-23 22:23:33.963 : string : 22:23:33
2022-04-23 22:23:33.967 : string : 22:23:33
2022-04-23 22:23:33.989 : string : 22:23:33
2022-04-23 22:23:33.992 : string : 22:23:33
2022-04-23 22:23:34.535 : string : 22:23:34
2022-04-23 22:23:34.538 : string : 22:23:34
2022-04-23 22:23:34.851 : string : 22:23:34
2022-04-23 22:23:34.853 : string : 22:23:34
The screensaver itself is working fine (and has been for years). But does it really need to create this file that's hundreds of MBs (I deleted it the other day and it's back to almost 600MB, that's a lot of text) of mostly lines like that? Am I missing another setting somewhere?
Sorry if this has been asked before, but searching for something that involves this file is referenced in like 90% of issues. Thanks!
Hey @vagari
No worries, this has been a lingering issue and while I thought I had addressed it I may have missed something and definitely made a mess while tracking another issue.
To recap the situation :
- This particular string debug message that spews every second per monitor, it's some debug test I added and forgot to remove. This will be removed in next build, because it made a bad situation even worse.
- In general, in 3.0.9 I made the decision to disable debug logs just for this, if you never enabled/disabled it yourself, the default is set to false now.
- If debug mode is disabled, Aerial should NOT generate those file. If it does, something is very wrong and I need to triple check that
In general I'm considering a few steps :
- No longer logging to disk by default (done, or I thought I did)
- Add an additional log to console option (disabled by default too)
- Prune the log at each startup (this is tricky) or when reaching a sensible size (say 1 MB)
Can you confirm that with debug mode disabled, the file is still created/written on ?
