brucedjones Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 i noticed a few days ago that my "/" partition was starting to get fuller and fuller quicker and quicker, after a day another 1GB's worth of stuff has appeared. so i went through my main dir's to figure out where all these huge files where and found them to be in /var/log/ so im guessing they are only log files...but why do they have to be so big?? and more importantly how can ni stop them getting so big?? im using mandrake 9.2 and the files in question are: /var/log/ syslog - 1.2GB messages - 1.2GB /var/log/kernel/ info - 401.3MB errors - 872.4MB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucedjones Posted May 31, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 ok if i puy the /var directory on another partition will they just grow until its full and then stop. and it wont let me delete the massive logs so i cant move it as it stands because the current dir is about 4GB and the new partitions only 2.2GB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spinynorman Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 You need to su to root to delete the logs. You can use log rotation to control the files - see man logrotate - but I think it's easier to just delete them from time to time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devries Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 You can stop the syslog service. That way the logs won't get bigger. (MCC->System->Services) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 (edited) How long has it taken for them to get this way? If not very long then something is seriously wrong. Is there any critical info in them that would give a clue as to why this is happening? Make sure you have anacron cron atd logcheck (where'd logrotate go?) Personally, I uninstall them all and do not run any of them ONCE I know all is well with the system/install, but this is just a desktop. Edited May 31, 2004 by bvc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucedjones Posted May 31, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 probly took about a week. ill try turning off the log services thing, they arent important are they?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crashdamage Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 Importance depends on what the logs say. If it only took a week for them to grow to this size, then like bvc said, something is seriously wrong. My log files are much smaller even after letting them grow for almost 2 1/2 years. Read the logs a little, especiallt at the end of the files. See if they can tell you what's causing these files to grow so fast. If you're stumped, post a small snippet here. The separate partition for /var is a real good idea, and IMHO should be the default for any Linux install. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spinynorman Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 I'm sorry I only skimmed your post the first time and didn't spot how fast it was growing. :( If you go to Applications - Monitoring - System Log, you should be able to see your logs in a convenient form. It defaults to messages, but you can use File - Open to access your other logs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 you can watch in realtime. Open a terminal>su to root>tail -f /var/log/messages ....but yeah, something isn't right. Do you have shorewall or any firewall running? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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