disable console-kit logging

Question

My X login manager (slim) has brought with it a dependency on a package consolekit I don't know what consolekit is good for, other login managers such as wdm do not need it.

But anyway, the problem I am having is that consolekit is logging lots of garbage in /var/log/ConsoleKit/history. I am not interested in those logs. Is it possible to disable logging?

I have tried removing the log file and creating a symlink to /dev/null

ln -s /dev/null /var/log/ConsoleKit/history

But that does not work, because consolekit now complains that there are too many levels of symbolic links.

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

From FreeDesktop.Org

ConsoleKit is a framework for defining and tracking users, login sessions, and seats.

Also note:

ConsoleKit is currently not actively maintained. The focus has shifted to the built-in seat/user/session management of Software/systemd called systemd-logind!

Documentation

No longer maintained but available here

To disable it, see:
console-kit-daemon Hogging CPU and RAM or
Gentoo Wiki: Consolekit

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 18 '14 at 10:47

1

ConsoleKit doesn't accept symbolic links for the log file as you mentioned in your question.

But you can trick consolekit a bit, when you create a null device instead of a normal log file. First remove the history file:

rm /var/log/ConsoleKit/history

And then use this command:

mknod /var/log/ConsoleKit/history c 1 3

That creates a null device (c: character special, 1: major number and 3 minor number).

Now, everthing that is logged in this file is deleted and needs no space on the filesystem.

answered Jul 18 '14 at 10:47

chaos

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so basically, this will create a second `/dev/null` file, named `/var/log/ConsoleKit/history` ? I have `/var` partition mounted with `nodev` option, will this still work? – Martin Vegter Jul 18 '14 at 16:45
@MartinVegter This will end in a `Permissin denied` when writing to this device. But, there is stil another option: a bind mount. Before creating the null device, run this command: `mount --bind $(mktemp -d) /var/log/ConsoleKit/`. Then create the device as in my answer. You can test with `echo "blah" >/var/log/ConsoleKit/history` which should not fail in a permissin error. – chaos Jul 18 '14 at 17:03

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 19 '14 at 08:17

0

Make the log file immutable as root.

sudo echo "" > /var/log/ConsoleKit/history/<log_filename>
sudo chattr +i /var/log/ConsoleKit/history/<log_filename>

answered Jul 19 '14 at 08:17

Rucent88

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disable console-kit logging

3 Answers3