Silencing rtkit-daemon in the syslog

If you're running Ubuntu and use applications that call for realtime priority then you have probably noticed your syslog filling up with garbage:

Jan  8 18:26:18 aspire rtkit-daemon[1955]: Supervising 6 threads of 2 processes of 1 users.
Jan  8 18:26:18 aspire rtkit-daemon[1955]: Successfully made thread 31761 of process 31676 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 2.
Jan  8 18:26:18 aspire rtkit-daemon[1955]: Supervising 6 threads of 2 processes of 1 users.
Jan  8 18:26:18 aspire rtkit-daemon[1955]: Successfully made thread 31761 of process 31676 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 2.
Jan  8 18:26:18 aspire rtkit-daemon[1955]: Supervising 6 threads of 2 processes of 1 users.
Jan  8 18:26:19 aspire rtkit-daemon[1955]: Successfully made thread 31761 of process 31676 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 2.

I have, anyway! Thousands of lines obscuring the "interesting" parts of the system log.

Solving this little problem is not immediately obvious and certainly not well documented. It can be solved in three relatively easy steps. You do need root access.

Step 1: Create the configuration file for rsyslog.
Step 2: Reload rsyslogd.
Step 3: Reload rtkit-daemon.

 $ sudo cat > /etc/rsyslog.d/20-rtkit-daemon.conf <<EOF
if \$programname == 'rtkit-daemon' then /var/log/rtkit-daemon.log
& ~
EOF
sudo service rsyslogd restart
sudo rtkitctl -k

Notes:

• Tell rsyslogd to restart, reloading doesn't work.
• rtkitctl -k should kill rtkit-daemon and then allow it to automatically re-spawn. If not you will also need to issue sudo rtkitctl --start.
• See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rtkit/+bug/1267212.
• I used a number before 50-default.conf (i.e. 20-rtkit-daemon.conf) because otherwise the logs are duplicated in both the syslog and rtkit-daemon.log [20 < 50].
• The \$ is needed if you are copying the above exactly into your command shell.