79

After I updated to 12.04, a file named C:\nppdf32Log\debuglog.txt occurs in my home directory. The content of the file is as the follow:

NPP_Initialize : called
NPP_GetValue is called
NPP_SetWindow : called for instance 920c0e28
Window from browser - 77594625
NPP_SetWindow : called for instance 920c0e28
Window from browser - 77594625
NPP_SetWindow : called for instance 920c0e28
Window from browser - 77594625
NPP_NewStream : called for instance 920c0e28, stream 913403b0, URL http://www.xxxxxx.com/attachments/soft/CDGM%20Optical%20Glass%20Catalog.pdf, stream size 36177984, seekable 1
NPP_Write : called for instance 920c0e28, stream 913403b0, offset = 0, length = 16384, streamlength = 36177984
Trying for window attributes
Trying for query tree
NPP_Write : called for instance 920c0e28, stream 913403b0, offset = 16384, length = 16384, streamlength = 36177984
Trying for window attributes
Trying for query tree ......

It seems this file is related to Firefox, what's exactly the problem?

Improve this question
3
  • 4
    This is a bug as mentioned in the answer of karolszk: LP Bug #986841. Bugs are offtopic here on Ask Ubuntu as per the FAQ, so I am voting to close this question. The bug report lists some work arounds you can use in the meantime.
    – gertvdijk
    Jan 20, 2013 at 10:35
  • tempfile=$(mktemp); crontab -l >$tempfile; echo -e "\n# Remove these annoying files lp#968841" >>$tempfile; echo "0 18 * * * nice -n19 ionice -c3 find ~ -name 'C\:\\nppdf32Log\\debuglog.txt' -exec rm -f '{}' \;" >>$tempfile; cat $tempfile | crontab -; rm -f $tempfile
    – catch23
    Jul 26, 2013 at 21:39
  • 2
    It's a bug and a common question. I think it should be reopened.
    – Bryce
    Mar 13, 2016 at 5:22

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
42

Here's what I found using a helpful link from Tom:

nppdf32.so is the actual browser plug-in for enabling Adobe Reader PDF-support in Firefox.

There seems to be a bug in the version 9.5.1 of the plugin creating the "C:\nppdf32Log\debuglog.txt" in the working-directory where Firefox was started. This will normally be the user's home directory if Firefox is started graphically. If you start it from the command-line the "C:\nppdf32Log\debuglog.txt" file will be created in the directory where you type firefox. There can be multiple such logfiles on your system if the PDF plugin has been started using different working directories.

Improve this answer
4
  • 4
    If you can live without the plug-in, i.e. read PDFs in full Reader/Evince/whatever instead of browser window, you can safely just delete the file npp /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/nppdf.so
    – Alois Mahdal
    Jul 26, 2013 at 12:56
  • Note that the path name is just a convention; this is not limited to Firefox or other Mozilla products. Many other browsers such as Opera look for plug-ins in this directory and vice-versa, packages like Adobe Reader create the directory during installation (even if no Mozilla software was ever installed) and deploy their plug-ins there.
    – Alois Mahdal
    Jul 26, 2013 at 13:01
  • Note that the file is also created if the plugin has been deactivated in FF.
    – Raphael
    Jul 26, 2014 at 18:05
  • On my machine (14.04) the plugin library was called /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/npwrapper.nppdf.so. I installed Adobe Reader a while back before uninstalling it but it left this behind...
    – sxc731
    Feb 21, 2016 at 15:29
23

If you can't wait for the next update but are willing to hack you can edit nppdf32.so in your plugins directory to replace C:\nppdf32Log\debuglog.txt with ./.nppdf32Log.debuglog.txt The file will still be created but will be hidden. I used vim with :set bin, searched for debuglog, then used replace mode.

It's a good idea to use a HEX editor as this is a binary file. Take care only to edit the 3 characters C:\ to ./., the second \ to a ., and nothing else.

Improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .