LOL!

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Yeah, in case it's not obvious that's a problem I've had to deal with a time or twenty.

Unix 302 - Logging in daemons and "always running" applications

When you're running something as a daemon or a long running application it either needs to handle it's own log rollover and expiration, or reopen and close the log for every message. Stdout and stderr don't work like this and the results can be ugly. BTW - The last server I wrote closed stdin, stdout and stderr and opened/closed the log file for every message. The behaviour was buried in a class so that it could be made smarter if need be, i.e. if it became a performance problem, without disrupting the rest of the code. The only time it ever was a hotspot was when the server was in runaway mode induced by a message feedback loop which we corrected VERY quickly.

Unless the file is closed, moving or deleting it externally doesn't do any good. Truncating may or may not work but involves a race condition which can lose messages.

When you're stuck with an application written by someone who is either ignorant of or has ignored these facts (even commercial software like the Weblogic application server is guilty of this) your options are quite limited as previoulsy outlined.

BTW - I think the poll needs at least a couple more choices to match the common queston we get here...

Q - I've got some really crusty old underpowered hardware and I either haven't read the FAQ/Forums or don't want to believe the answers I found there. Can this be made to work?
A - Uhm... What part of "no" didn't you understand...

Q - What do you think of this incredibly overspec'ed hardware for my dedicated box...
A - Have you ever heard the phrase "killing mosquitos with a cannon?"

Did I ever tell you how I came to learn Gentoo? Cool system. Build everything from scratch. Learn a bunch about the kernel. Get nothing productive done whatsoever. When I subsequently happened upon KnoppMyth, I was slightly more than overjoyed.

So there I was with a bunch of hardware, no working MythTV installation, and KnoppMyth instructions which indicated the hardware I'd originally opted to purchase was less than ideal. If there's any silver lining in this, it's the glimmer of hope that my documentation here and in the wiki will help someone else along. It's either that, or wallow in self-pity.

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R5Fxx

Home-Brewed Mythic Dragon Clone
200GB WD IDE /myth
2x250GB WD IDE (lvm) /myth/tv