I'm saving debug logs for iTerm2 but why can't I find them?

I can't find the file /tmp/debuglog.txt anywhere using finder.

locate debuglog.txt failed because there is no database, so I've built one using sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plist

Database complete, locate debuglog.txt returns nothing.

Question: I'm saving debug logs for Bash but why can't I find them?

Background

I start Anaconda Python 3.7.6 and run scripts from iTerm2 using macOS 10.15.7.

A few times a week iTerm2 suddenly freezes, and I have to use Quit from the application and start it again.

• I loose some of the "backarrow history" which is troublesome for me.
• I also worry about potential security issues.

I use matplotlib 3.1.3 all the time and I know there are some issues. So far I can't exclude it from the list of possible causes.

From this issue I have found this explanation how to start a log, then I have to wait until the bug happens again then toggle it again to save some log.

I have supposedly captured an issue many times in hopes of collecting many debug logs. I can not find /tmp/debuglog.txt anywhere though.

Solution 1:

Perhaps that message is from a time where the temporary directory was indeed /tmp many macOS versions ago. Nowadays macOS manages a private temporary directory per GUI user which is provided as the environment variable $TMPDIR somewhere in /var/folders — try open $TMPDIR/debuglog.txt.