Why is the .xsession-errors.old file so big?
Solution 1:
You could investigate the problem. Yes, I know it's a big file, but by throwing away data and letting the computer do the work, one could:
cat .xsession-errors* | \
egrep -v '^$' | \
sed -e 's/[0-9][0-9]\+/#NUM#/g' | \
sort | \
uniq -c | \
sort -rn | \
tee counts.out | \
less -XMersj3
Some messages (on my system without the problem) like:
38 /usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/ui/gtk3/widgets/exhibits.py:#NUM#: Warning: Source ID #NUM# was not found when attempting to remove it
38 GLib.source_remove(self._timeout)
36 (nautilus:#NUM#): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_window_get_origin: assertion 'GDK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed
happen more often (38, 38, 36 times) than others, and therefore deserve more investigation.
Others:
1 compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: ccp
1 compiz (core) - Info: Loading plugin: animation
Another thing to do is to look for deleted, but still open files:
sudo lsof / | egrep 'PID|(deleted)'
Look for large SIZE/OFF values.
And look for large open files:
sudo lsof / | \
awk '{if($7 > 1048576) print $7/1048576 "MB" " " $9 }' | \
sort -n -u