Why are .goutputstream-xxxxx files created in home folder?

Question

I find a lot of files with names of the like

.goutputstream-xxxxx

where xxxxx are some alphanumeric characters.

Here is a screenshot of the home folder

screenshot of home folder

Any idea why I should keep these or can I remove and also stop further creation?

This bug has been fixed https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lightdm/+bug/984785 — Braiam, Dec 22 '13 at 17:38
Those are POSIX process forking tunnels, that had not been closed properly. We can produce them from php posix_mkfifo() and pcntl_exec() — NVRM, Oct 12 '19 at 10:29
One suddenly appeared at ~/Desktop in ubuntu 23.04 once SIGTERM was passed to gnome-shell. The stat shows that it had been created 3 days before though, but it wasn't visible. Also the file output: .goutputstream-X8R6C2: Zip archive data, at least v2.0 to extract, compression method=[0x305c] — Mislah, Oct 30 '23 at 14:53

score 59 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 25 '12 at 15:18

59

This is a bug - https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lightdm/+bug/984785

Pretty sure it's not ubuntu one - I don't have it here and have the files.

I delete them every now and again, not caused me any issues.

You can run this command in a terminal to delete them all:

cd && rm .goutputstream-* -v

edited Jul 25 '12 at 15:18

Anwar

76,649

answered Jun 15 '12 at 07:00

23 93 26 35 19 57 3 89

5,636

I believe, those files are related with gstreamer or pulseaudio. – Anwar Jul 25 '12 at 15:15

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 15 '12 at 05:58

7

These are temporary files that should have been deleted. Most likely created by Ubuntu One.

This issue has been discussed to detail on this forum:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=11953534

answered Jun 15 '12 at 05:58

upapilot

2,916

@ObsessiveFOSS The first sentence of this answer really does fundamentally answer the question (or attempt to, I'm not saying this is right). And it is the essential information from the linked thread. I'm not sure this particular answer actually does require any additional details. – Eliah Kagan Jul 25 '12 at 16:06
5

I do not use Ubuntu One and still get these files. – To Do Feb 06 '13 at 16:21

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 06 '13 at 16:13

5

A fix is still in the works (via the bug report):

upstream commited a fix to git if somebody wants to try the change: http://git.gnome.org/browse/glib/commit/?id=afdb2abb13896a3d5caecabd2f7158e8047f9956

For now, I'm running this in cron (myuser is my username, and using crontab -e to edit ) :

@daily find /home/myuser/.goutputstream-* -mtime +2 -print | xargs rm -f

answered Feb 06 '13 at 16:13

belacqua

23,120

1

Would I just add the above cron job into a crontab exactly as you have written it? If so, where do I save it when prompted by nano? – Shawn Mar 20 '13 at 01:53
If you use crontab -e, the default location should be correctly selected already. – belacqua Mar 20 '13 at 22:47
2

Just use -delete instead of your xargs, it is safer and simpler. – Martin Ueding Apr 15 '13 at 17:32
@queueoverflow I assume that works as long as you're using GNU find. – belacqua Apr 16 '13 at 21:30

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Nov 14 '12 at 10:50

3

I don't know if it is because of a kernel update, or what have you but I was able to accomplish the same result as:

cd && rm .goutputstream-* -v

by running:

rm .goutputstream-*

edited Nov 14 '12 at 10:50

devav2

36,312

answered Nov 13 '12 at 23:18

phillip

55
1

10

The former goes to the home directory cd, deletes all .goutputstream-* files and gives you a list of the files deleted. The latter deletes all .goutputstream-* files in the current directory. So your solution won't work if the user isn't already in the home directory. – Zaz Dec 14 '12 at 13:08
Well, it will work, it just won't delete the .goutputstream-* files that may be in the home directory. If there had been any such files in that current directory, they would have been deleted. – icedwater Jan 05 '14 at 08:51
Nothing to do with any kernel. – Ken Sharp Jul 30 '15 at 18:52

Why are .goutputstream-xxxxx files created in home folder?

4 Answers4

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