[Pkg-lirc-maint] Bug#860296: lirc is spamming syslog with messages

[Ayke van Laethem]

Package: lirc
Version: 0.9.4c-9
Followup-For: Bug #860296

Dear Maintainer,

I believe this is a real bug. The problem is not that it logs the error
(which it should), the problem is that it *keeps* logging the error
without any form of throttling quickly filling the whole syslog:

$ ls -l /var/log/syslog
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 4,2G jul 28 16:33 /var/log/syslog

Sample from syslog:
    Jul 28 16:28:41 ayke-desktop lircd-0.9.4c[874]: Error: uirt2:
    reading of byte 0 failed
    Jul 28 16:28:41 ayke-desktop lircd-0.9.4c[874]: Invalid argument
    Jul 28 16:28:41 ayke-desktop lircd-0.9.4c[874]: Error: uirt2:
    reading of byte 0 failed
    Jul 28 16:28:41 ayke-desktop lircd-0.9.4c[874]: Invalid argument
    Jul 28 16:28:41 ayke-desktop lircd-0.9.4c[874]: Error: uirt2:
    reading of byte 0 failed
    Jul 28 16:28:41 ayke-desktop lircd-0.9.4c[874]: Invalid argument
    Jul 28 16:28:41 ayke-desktop lircd-0.9.4c[874]: Error: uirt2:
    reading of byte 0 failed
    Jul 28 16:28:41 ayke-desktop lircd-0.9.4c[874]: Invalid argument

This became a problem during the upgrade from jessie to stretch. During
a large part of the upgrade my whole root disk was filled with useless
log messages (0 bytes free storage), so I'm actually surprised it
finished upgrading without issues. Upgrading is a critical operation so
I would consider this an important bug.

The configuration files attached here *should* be enough to reproduce
the issue. I am willing to provide the original configuration files that
I used.

In my opinion, lirc should be fixed to not retry this often or fail the
first time - there's no use in retrying with an invalid configuration.

A workaround is disabling lirc in stretch:

    systemctl disable lirc


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.1
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-3-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US:en (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages lirc depends on:
ii  init-system-helpers  1.48
ii  libasound2           1.1.3-5
ii  libc6                2.24-11+deb9u1
ii  libftdi1-2           1.3-2+b2
ii  libgcc1              1:6.3.0-18
ii  liblirc-client0      0.9.4c-9
ii  liblirc0             0.9.4c-9
ii  libportaudio2        19.6.0-1
ii  libstdc++6           6.3.0-18
ii  libsystemd0          232-25+deb9u1
ii  libudev1             232-25+deb9u1
ii  libusb-0.1-4         2:0.1.12-30
ii  libusb-1.0-0         2:1.0.21-1
ii  lsb-base             9.20161125
ii  python3              3.5.3-1

Versions of packages lirc recommends:
pn  gir1.2-vte    <none>
ii  python3-gi    3.22.0-2
ii  python3-yaml  3.12-1

Versions of packages lirc suggests:
pn  ir-keytable          <none>
pn  lirc-compat-remotes  <none>
pn  lirc-doc             <none>
pn  lirc-drv-irman       <none>
pn  lirc-x               <none>
pn  setserial            <none>

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/lirc/hardware.conf changed:
LIRCD_ARGS=""
LOAD_MODULES=false
DRIVER="uirt2"
DEVICE="/dev/ttyACM0"
MODULES=""
LIRCD_CONF=""
LIRCMD_CONF=""

/etc/lirc/lircd.conf changed:
begin remote
  name  philips
  bits           32
  eps            30
  aeps          100
  one             0     0
  zero            0     0
  post_data_bits  16
  post_data      0x0
  gap          114685
  toggle_bit_mask 0xF5108D990000
      begin codes
          KEY_LEFT                 0x97309DDB
          KEY_LEFT                 0x6E3215BE
          KEY_RIGHT                0x6FA99F00
          KEY_UP                   0xA79C13E5
          KEY_DOWN                 0xFB6351AD
          KEY_FORWARD              0x22000000
          KEY_REWIND               0x14080000
          KEY_PLAYPAUSE            0x15000000
          KEY_MENU                 0xFEF2B8BF
          KEY_INFO                 0x0F000000
          KEY_INFO                 0x0F080000
          KEY_MUTE                 0x0D080000
          KEY_VOLUMEUP             0x10000000
          KEY_VOLUMEDOWN           0x11080000
      end codes
end remote


-- no debconf information