Flash CS3 on OS X and syslogd

Posted on April 15, 2008 by keith

Another one related to component creation, but a question this time…

Does your syslogd sometimes go out of control? Whenever I save the Component Definition dialog, export a SWC, Convert to Compiled Clip, or Save the file I’m creating my components in, my CPU pretty much maxes out. Activity Monitor shows the process syslogd is raging out of control. I know Flash is logging some crazy amount of data. A look in the logs shows it’s logging thousands of lines of this crap:

[xml]Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : function toPrecision(p:Object,)
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : addFunction
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : metadata name = __go_to_definition_help
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : Key Value Pair: file = C:\\src\\player\\FlashPlayer\\avmplus\\core\\Number.as
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : Key Value Pair: pos = 4823
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : got type name: int
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : returnType = int
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : function valueOf()
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : addFunction
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : metadata name = __go_to_definition_help
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : Key Value Pair: file = C:\\src\\player\\FlashPlayer\\avmplus\\core\\Number.as
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : Key Value Pair: pos = 5811
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : got type name: String
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : returnType = String
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : got type name: Object
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : phas a Number default value = 0.0
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : function toFixed(p:Object,)
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : addFunction
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : metadata name = __go_to_definition_help
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : Key Value Pair: file = C:\\src\\player\\FlashPlayer\\avmplus\\core\\Number.as
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : Key Value Pair: pos = 5407
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : got type name: String
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : returnType = String
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : got type name: Object
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : phas a Number default value = 0.0
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : function toExponential(p:Object,)
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : addFunction
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : metadata name = __go_to_definition_help
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : Key Value Pair: file = C:\\src\\player\\FlashPlayer\\avmplus\\core\\Number.as
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : Key Value Pair: pos = 4729
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : got type name: String
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : returnType = String
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : got type name: Object
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : radixhas a Number default value = 10.0
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : function toString(radix:Object,)
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : addFunction
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : got type name: Object
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : valuehas a Number default value = 0.0
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : function int(value:Object,)
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : addVariable
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : metadata name = __go_to_definition_help
Mon Apr 14 16:02:31 Lebowski [0x0-0x4bd4bd].com.adobe.flash-9.0-en_us[24983] : Key Value Pair: file = C:\\src\\player\\FlashPlayer\\avmplus\\core\\Number.as
[/xml]

(Lebowski is the name of my computer ๐Ÿ™‚ )

Note the timestamp. Actually that’s a small fraction of what gets logged per second. And it goes on indefinitely until I force quite the process, which I am now doing dozens of times per day.

Anyone have any idea why it’s doing this, or how to make it stop?

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15 Responses to Flash CS3 on OS X and syslogd

  1. nylarch says:
    April 15, 2008 at 9:08 am

    Mark it zero!

  2. kp says:
    April 15, 2008 at 9:32 am

    Not sure what you mean by “mark it zero”, but I did try the suggestions in comment #19 here:

    http://smartic.us/2007/11/8/leopard-100-cpu-usage-caused-by-syslogd-and-possibly-time-machine

    including deleting the file and adding the cutoff level. syslogd still goes wild for a while, but settles down after 15-20 seconds. Not sure if that’s just because the log file is smaller. If so, it will probably get worse.

  3. kp says:
    April 15, 2008 at 9:37 am

    ok, i got the “mark it zero” comment. ๐Ÿ™‚

  4. shaun says:
    April 15, 2008 at 10:00 am

    but I didn’t! curious now ๐Ÿ™‚ what does it mean?

  6. Josh says:
    April 15, 2008 at 1:07 pm

    If you run Flash CS3 from the command line on Windows (which I often do with JSFL), it displays the same messages. I’m guessing someone at Adobe forgot to take out their equivalent of trace() statements. ๐Ÿ™‚

  7. VV says:
    April 15, 2008 at 1:07 pm

    Flash CS3 / OSX is a complete crap which made me switch to TextMate + Flex SDK. There’s a infinite of infinities of unbelievable dumb issues I hope they will fix for CS4. Hey KP, do you always wait 10 seconds for import open dialog? Do you get black stroke around rectangle when you change it’s fill color? Uhm maybe I would do some things faster with IDE than with TextMate, but these things make me cry.

    So that was a bit OT, back to the topic. I tried to find where’s the problem with my import dialog – and figured out that Flash CS3 is not even a Carbon app (hey Adobe, do you know about Cocoa?) but some hybrid and it even doesn’t know about system logs at all. So – is there any place where to read log files for Flash (not just for syslogd)?

  8. Lebowski Podcast says:
    April 15, 2008 at 3:10 pm

    All I know is that you better mark it zero or you’ll be entering a “world of pain.”

  9. grindFish says:
    April 26, 2008 at 1:20 am

    Flash CS3 on OSX – its a world of pain.

    Any one get that issues where it wont play more than two frames on the time line? Or where it wont play sounds at all? Or were tabs become unclickable until you click some where randomly that make the mouse work again? Or menus that get stuck on highlighted? Or waiting an eternity for those damn opaque panels to draw in ever time you switch out and back to flash? Or that every time you load Flash CS3 an angry dolphin teleports under your desk and lands a crushing blow to your testicles (this may be a gender specific error, have not tested)? I could go on but ill just get really depressed.

  10. Michiel van der Ros says:
    May 8, 2008 at 8:00 am

    I have exactly the same problem. It really sucks for testing performance issues in your app, because Syslogd is taking its own load of the CPU.

    Any solutions yet??

  11. Michiel van der Ros says:
    May 9, 2008 at 4:10 am

    I switched off ‘export SWC’ in the publish settings, and the problem is gone now!
    I’ll only compile SWCs when the FLA actually changed.

  12. Michael Whitaker says:
    July 15, 2008 at 7:09 pm

    Here’s a solution! After messing with the same thing, I did this, and it works wonderfully:

    1. Open terminal
    2. goto “/Applications/Adobe\ Flash\ CS3/Adobe\ Flash\ CS3.app/Contents/MacOS/”
    this can be done by typing in:

    “cd /Applications/Adobe\ Flash\ CS3/Adobe\ Flash\ CS3.app/Contents/MacOS/”

    If your path is different, then just go to the Contents/MacOS folder of ‘Adobe Flash CS3.app’.

    3. rename Adobe\ Flash\ CS3 to Adobe\ Flash\ CS3.old

    4. (still in terminal) type in each line followed by a return:

    touch Adobe\ Flash\ CS3
    chmod +x Adobe\ Flash\ CS3
    nano Adobe\ Flash\ CS3

    edit it as such (or simply past if your path is the same as mine):

    #!/bin/bash
    /Applications/Adobe\ Flash\ CS3/Adobe\ Flash\ CS3.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe\ Flash\ CS3.old >> /dev/null

    That should only be 2 lines.

    You’re done!

    What happens is one of Adobe’s programmers left in debug statements or something in the SWC compile app. I’ve notified a friend in Adobe, and he’s looking for a solution (or simply who’s responsible) for this. Hopefully it’ll be fixed next update!

    -Mike Whitaker

  13. Michael Whitaker says:
    July 15, 2008 at 7:11 pm

    Sorry, clarification on step 3:

    type in “mv Adobe\ Flash\ CS3 to Adobe\ Flash\ CS3 Adobe\ Flash\ CS3 to Adobe\ Flash\ CS3.old”

    That just renames the binary to an alternate name so our script can call it instead of OSX.

    -Mike Whitaker

  14. Michael Whitaker says:
    July 15, 2008 at 7:12 pm

    Ok, ok, ok. Its late and I’m tired. ๐Ÿ˜›

    type in “mv Adobe\ Flash\ CS3 Adobe\ Flash\ CS3.oldรขโ‚ฌย

    yeah. that’ll do it.

  15. Joe B says:
    November 8, 2008 at 11:56 pm

    Good idea! I was struggling with this for a while… can’t believe I didn’t think of that.

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