Calling xfdesktop --reload can causes hung xfdesktop processes
Running DISPLAY=:0.0 xfdesktop --reload
sometimes causes xfdesktop to remaining running and consuming memory.
I confirmed this is the case from a live shell, or from a script called via cron. You can see the command in question here. Is it just DISPLAY=:0.0 xfdesktop --reload
Here you can see all the hung xfdesktops:
% ps aux | grep xfdesktop
facade 16385 0.2 0.4 627308 151784 ? Sl 16:06 0:02 xfdesktop --display :0.0 --sm-client-id 163dc03e4-c2ef-4625-a5df-c7636ad245ee
facade 19309 0.0 0.0 113864 19472 ? Ssl 16:07 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 28051 0.0 0.0 113856 19640 ? Ssl 16:08 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 37263 0.0 0.0 113876 19524 ? Ssl 16:09 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 91975 0.0 0.0 113860 19512 ? Ssl 16:10 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 175643 0.0 0.0 113888 19508 ? Ssl 16:11 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 246545 0.0 0.0 113884 19540 ? Ssl 16:12 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 346944 0.0 0.0 113880 21752 ? Ssl 16:13 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 394049 0.0 0.0 113852 22996 ? Ssl 16:14 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 405318 0.0 0.0 113884 22996 ? Ssl 16:15 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 405384 0.0 0.0 113876 23412 ? Ssl 16:16 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 407894 0.0 0.0 113880 23168 ? Ssl 16:17 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 483276 0.0 0.0 113852 23604 ? Ssl 16:18 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 510162 0.0 0.0 113848 23460 ? Ssl 16:19 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 516145 0.0 0.0 113884 23232 ? Ssl 16:20 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 516169 0.0 0.0 113872 23540 ? Sl 16:20 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 516961 0.0 0.0 113852 23652 ? Ssl 16:21 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 517905 0.0 0.0 113864 23596 ? Ssl 16:22 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 533235 0.0 0.0 113884 23628 ? Ssl 16:23 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 573579 0.0 0.0 113868 23360 ? Ssl 16:24 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 574487 0.0 0.0 113852 23628 ? Ssl 16:25 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 575397 0.1 0.0 113872 23176 ? Ssl 16:26 0:00 xfdesktop --reload
facade 575840 0.0 0.0 6328 2148 pts/2 S+ 16:26 0:00 grep --color=auto xfdesktop
Note that killall xfdesktop
fixes it. I am on Arch Linux which is currently shipping xfdesktop 4.14.3-1